Press conference - Cochin, India Zainab Shah and Ved Bhasin protesting against the suffering of their people Upon arrival in Cochin, nearly 40 journalists were invited aboard to hold a press conference with international guests Zainab Shah from Pakistan, Ved Bhasin from Kashmir, and Saptarshi Bhattachary of India. One of India's most senior journalists, Ved Bhasin launched straight into a protest against the refusal of the local authorities to grant Ms. Shah a transit permit, pointing out that Zainab is a young journalist just starting out on her career. She doesn't represent the Pakistan government, nor is she an armed infiltrator, she is a peaceful citizen working for understanding・ He highlighted the responsibility of those working in the media to object to the strong-arm policies pursued by the government and stated that all Indian people have an obligation to help resolve the dispute over Kashmir and foster friendship and fruitful cooperation between India and Pakistan. In a plea to end the bloodshed, International Student and young journalist Zainab said people of India and Pakistan were once one family and even now we face the same social problems. In 1947 a line was drawn to form two nations but the people suffering now are dying as human beings, not as people belonging to religious groups or nationalities・ Insisting that no-one wanted war, she reflected that the reason so much hatred had grown between people formerly of the same nationality was due to media and government propaganda. Affirming support of his fellow colleague's contribution, Saptarshi added, Since Zini and I met on the 28th August in Tokyo we have talked about various issues, both light and heavy and we have found that our area of agreement is far greater than the points of disagreement. Cochin reporter talking to Zainab and Saptarshi PQuestions from the journalists concerned whether the ship would be visiting Pakistan on the current voyage, to which Cruise Director Takayoshi Kise replied that it was not impossible for future voyages to set up a dialogue programme with India and Pakistan similar to the summer cruises to North and South Korea. He added that although Peace Boat's achievements may appear small on the world stage, examples such as the IS Programme and the Peace Boat's work promoting dialogue between parties from diverse and often opposing groups each new step builds on the last to form more significant progress. Once the formal question and answer session came to an end, the visitors crowded around Saptarshi and Zainab to ask in more detail about their work and the visa issue, then proceeded to the deck where Team Space danced a message of peace. Just before the boat set sail the following day, an lawyer came to the ship to apologise to Ms. Shah on behalf of the Indian people and emphasise that it was the government who refused visa's, not ordinary citizens. At the time of departure, over ten newspaper articles and TV broadcasts had appeared in local and regional media covering Peace Boat's visit. Peace Boat's 39th Voyage index