india, Pakistan unite for peace in Africa

[LRE]

India, Pakistan unite for peace in Africa

* Report says Pakistani and Indian troops co-operate to ensure peace in Congo

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: President Asif Ali Zardari’s stand for friendlier ties with India may have shocked many in the Subcontinent, but thousands of kilometres away, the two neighbours are collaborating to reduce mutual distrust, Hindustan Times reported on Monday. The deep-rooted antipathy between Indian and Pakistani soldiers has transformed into co-operation in the killing fields of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Viewed by the world as bitter adversaries who have fought four wars, the report says, Indian and Pakistani troops are making joint efforts to return some semblance of peace to this war-scarred African paradise. Their co-operation in Africa runs counter to the constant exchange of fire between them along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, the report says. The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo, known by its French acronym MONUC, is served by almost 10,000 Indian and Pakistani soldiers deployed in North Kivu and South Kivu, provinces where Congolese army and rebel militias are locked in a fierce battle for control.

At the MONUC’s nerve centre of operations, Indian and Pakistani army officers share workstations, plan the deployment of forces and assess the outcome of peace operations with Bollywood melodies soothing their nerves, according to the report. The Pakistani brigade in South Kivu is dependent on Indian helicopters. Mi-35 attack helicopters attacked rebel positions with 57 millimetre rockets during the 2004 Bukavu crisis when Pakistani troops radioed the Indian Air Force (IAF) for support.

“We are on the same side in this war,” a Pakistan army major told the newspaper on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to interact with the media. Indian Aviation Contingent commander Group Captain NJS Dhillon said, “We support Pakistani soldiers just the way we support Indians. Pakistani commanders are flown regularly by Indian pilots.” Before MONUC’s experimental eastern division in Goma was disbanded this August, its reins were in the hands of an Indian major general whose deputy was a Pakistani brigadier, the report says.

Referring to the Kargil war between Pakistan and India, Lieutenant Colonel Arvind Mishra, who commands a company of Sikh troops at Rutshuru, north of Goma, said, “We cannot detach ourselves from the past. But we can respect each other as soldiers.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg7_22