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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, May 31, 2002

Rumsfeld to Head to India

U.S. President Bush said Thursday he will send Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to India and Pakistan next week in an effort to defuse escalating tension between the two nuclear nations. "We are making it very clear to both Pakistan and India that war will not serve their interests," Bush said after a Cabinet meeting.


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U.S. President Bush said Thursday he will send Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to India and Pakistan next week in an effort to defuse escalating tension between the two nuclear nations. "We are making it very clear to both Pakistan and India that war will not serve their interests," Bush said after a Cabinet meeting.

He also urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to "live up to his word" and stop cross-border attacks in Kashmir

Kashmir has been contested since British India was partitioned in 1947 and Kashmir went to Hindu India despite its overwhelmingly Muslim populace. The current phase of the crisis began two weeks ago when suspected Islamic militants attacked an Indian army base in Kashmir and killed more than 30 people, including 10 children.

During his trip, Rumsfeld is expected to share a Pentagon report completed this week indicating that a nuclear exchange between the two countries could kill as many as 12 million people almost instantly.

Military relations with India are even more distant, despite Rumsfeld's recent overtures to the country. India was aligned with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Amid rising tensions, Bush responded to a report in USA TODAY that the government was making plans for the possible evacuation of 1,100 U.S. troops and about 60,000 U.S citizens from both countries.

He said Rumsfeld and Powell are "analyzing what it would take to protect American lives if need be." He did not elaborate.




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