India/US - Mumbai attacks

Clinton pays tribute to Mumbai attack victims

Article published on the 2009-07-18 Latest update 2009-07-18 14:10 TU

Hillary Clinton signs the memorial book commemorating the Mumbai attacks
(Photo: Reuters)

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Mumbai commemorating the victims of last year’s attacks in the Indian capital, called for the world to come together to fight violent extremism. She also said she would not put pressure on India to resume dialogue with Pakistan, as the trial in Islamabad of five people accused of being involved the attacks is adjourned until next week.

Clinton spoke to a news conference outside the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, one of targets of the November 2008 attacks which left 166 people dead.

Making reference to Friday’s double hotel bombings in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, which has been blamed on an extremist group, she said that "the United States will work with the Indian government, the Indonesian government and other nations and peoples to seek peace and security and confront and defeat these violent extremists."

Clinton signed a remembrance book for the victims, and met with 13 staff members of the Taj and nearby Trident-Oberoi hotels who lost family, friends and co-workers in the attacks.

The US top diplomat is in India for five days, the first high-level US visit to the country since Barack Obama became president.

Expectations are high for the visit, Kamal Mitra Chinoy, professor of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, told RFI.

“But there are also some apprehensions about what she might say about India signing the Non Proliferation Treaty and so forth,” he said. India is one of the few countries to have not signed the international agreement to limit the spread of nuclear weapons.

“People would be interested in knowing how the American position on nuclear weapons and nuclear technology… what their real stance on that is,” said Chinoy.

Additionally, there are expectations that the US would put pressure on Pakistan to reign in terrorism in the country, he added. India has accused Pakistan of harbouring terrorists, including groups that trained, equipped and financed the Mumbai attackers.

Clinton said she would not pressure India to repair ties with Pakistan, saying it is up to the two countries to decide on their own.

"The US is very supportive of all efforts in the fight against terrorism,” Clinton told reporters in Mumbai. “At the same time, we are not going to in any way pressurise to restart dialogue as it is for these two sovereign governments to decide.”

Meanwhile, in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, the trial of five of the ten armed gunmen accused of being involved in the attacks resumed Saturday, including the alleged mastermind, Zakiduddin Lakhvi, only to be adjourned until next week, according to a defence lawyer.

"The hearing has been adjourned till July 25 and I was given access to the accused persons," defence lawyer Shahbaz Rajput told the AFP news agency.

The trial was adjourned after the state requested in-camera proceedings, according to Rajput. Journalists are not allowed in courtroom which is set up in the high-security Adiala prison in Rawalpindi.

Last week, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the trail would be transparent.