Il Primo Ministro del J&K, mr. Mufti ha incontrato una delegazione di ambasciatori dei paesi dell'Unione Europea. La delegazione, guidata dal ambasciatore della Commissione Europea Michel Caillouet, era composta dall'Ambasciatore italiano a Nuova Delhi, Benedetto Amari, dall'Ambasciatore Irlandese Philip Mcdonagh and e dal Primo consigliere dell'Ambasciata d'Italia, E. M. Belleli.
Originale: Il Primo Ministro incontra delegazione di ambasciatori UE: modificate gli avvisi di sicurezza. (lingua: Italiano
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Il Primo Ministro del J&K, mr. Mufti ha incontrato una delegazione di ambasciatori dei paesi dell'Unione Europea. La delegazione, guidata dal ambasciatore della Commissione Europea Michel Caillouet, era composta dall'Ambasciatore italiano a Nuova Delhi, Benedetto Amari, dall'Ambasciatore Irlandese Philip Mcdonagh and e dal Primo consigliere dell'Ambasciata d'Italia, E. M. Belleli. Il primo ministro ha sollecitato i paesi UE a modificare i propri avvisi alla sicurezza ritenendo questo provvedimento il "miglio aiuto" che la UE può fornire al Kashmir. La Valle del Kashmir, che un tempo riceveva anche 50.000 turisti stranieri all'anno, ora vede la presenza di poche migliaia (2682 nel 2002), mentre rimane florido il turismo del "piccolo Tibet". Oltre 15.000 sono state le presenze di turisti nella valle del Ladakh nel corso del 2001.
La delegazioni ha incontrato rappresentanti delle varie componenti della società kashmira inclusi esponenti dei movimenti separatisti.
-- originale -- Mufti To EU: Withdraw Travel Advisories
SRINAGAR: J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed has urged EU to withdraw travel advisories issued to their citizens against visiting Kashmir. This, he told a visiting EU delegation, would be an investment in peace and would be treated as their greatest contribution in promoting tourism and accelerating process of normalization in the strife ridden J&K.
"They offered some kind of aid but I told them your best aid would be if your government's withdraw the advisories. They said they will be taking this up this issue with their respective governments", Mufti said. The EU delegation comprising Ambassador of European Commission Michel Caillouet, Ambassador of Italy Benedetto Amari, Ambassador of Ireland Philip Mcdonagh and First Counselor in the Embassy of Italy, E. M. Belleli. They have had detailed interaction with the cross section of the society including separatists.
Mufti impressed upon the diplomats to persuade their governments to withdraw the travel advisories issued to their citizens for not visiting J&K. He said sporadic incidents do take place all over the world as in Kashmir, adding that the atmosphere in the valley is much relaxed now. Mufti asserted that the normalization process has strengthened notwithstanding some stray incidents here and there. He informed the delegation that a number of foreign tourists are visiting Kashmir even for trekking.
"We accord highest priority to promotion of tourism as this critical sector has the capacity to activate the economy expeditiously and provide instant succour to the people and become a great helper in the process of normalcy as compared to other sectors of development which are time consuming", Mufti told the envoys. Already, the government has taken various steps to speed up socio-economic development in the state. These include linking Kashmir with the rest of the country through rail.
Highlighting the measures his government has taken, Mufti told the diplomats that they have had one Ambassadors' Golf Cup that had a better attendance from a number of missions. In order to send a strong message outside that Kashmir was safe for tourists, J&K played host to the President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam besides holding Congress Chief Minister's Conference and recently the Inter State Council meeting. Prime Minister Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited twice in the recent past. At the same time, some top CEOs and over 300 parlimentarians visited Kashmir in connection with standing committee meetings. Around 1,54,000 Hindu pilgrims visited the Himalayan cave shrine of Amarnath this year.
Though around 50,000 foreign tourists would visit Kashmir during halcyon days, their number remained dwindling after the guns started roaring in Kashmir. Till 1998 when over 17,000 foreigners visited Kashmir, foreigners were maintaining their arrivals at around 8,000 a year. It fell to 7,575 in 2000 and to an all time low of 2686 in 2002. This is even less than what the arid Ladakh region gets. In 2001 15,439 foreigners visited Ladakh and last year it got 5,120 more than what the rest of the state got. The situation continues to be grim even though Mufti Sayeed is hawking "return of the relaxed" atmosphere. So far only around 4,000 foreigners have visited Kashmir in the eight months.
The Western nations issued advisories against visiting J&K after a series of incidents involving security forces and militants were reported from Kashmir. These included the killing of an American tourist Stephen Paul Oesterly in Srinagar on July 19, 1994. The situation became worse when the shadowy Al-Faran outfit took hostage Britons Paul Seymour Wells and Keith Charles Mangan and American Donald Fred Hutchings and John Donald Childs, Norwegian Hans Christian Ostroe, and German Dirk Heserts from Upper Pahalgam on July 4 - 8, 1995. Childs escapes. On Aug 13, the beheaded body of Norwegian Ostro is found near Anantnag. The file of this sensational kidnapping is yet to be closed as authorities have failed to trace body of any of the four presumed to be dead.
Since then no Western travel service, airlines or an embassy has been advising people to visit Kashmir. Though the tour and travel operators in Srinagar have been trying to manage some kind of traffic, the murder of two Dutch nationals Ell Bakiowli Ahmad and Ell Hassnowi Khaliq in Srinagar on January 13, 2002 by the security forces added to the fears. Since all the efforts have failed, now the government is trying to take the advisory issue with the respective governments
Il Primo Ministro del J&K, mr. Mufti ha incontrato una delegazione di ambasciatori dei paesi dell'Unione Europea. La delegazione, guidata dal ambasciatore della Commissione Europea Michel Caillouet, era composta dall'Ambasciatore italiano a Nuova Delhi, Benedetto Amari, dall'Ambasciatore Irlandese Philip Mcdonagh and e dal Primo consigliere dell'Ambasciata d'Italia, E. M. Belleli.
