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Angered by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's remarks that the Security Council resolutions on Kashmir cannot form the basis for the settlement of the issue, Pakistan on Friday gave vent to its frustration at the session of the Commission on Human Rights when it said dialogue and ceasefire offered no permanent solution to the 53-year-old issue.
"Irrespective of arguments over ceasefire and dialogue, the reality is that the problem of Kashmir can only be resolved in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people," Akram Munib, Pakistan's representative, said at the 57th session of the Commission.
Speaking on self-determination, he virtually criticised Annan for his remark that the resolutions on Kashmir were not self-enforcing. ''It is the duty of the UN to devise means to implement these resolutions," he said.
Munir said if solemn agreements endorsed by the Security Council could be disavowed, it will erode the very basis of international law and the UN Charter.
While urging the UN to play its role in the Kashmir issue, Munir said it had legal, political and moral obligation to 'foster a just and peaceful solution to the dispute'.
"The UN has an obligation to hold the parties concerned to their commitments and to promote implementation of its resolutions. If the resolutions do not prescribe the mechanism for their enforcement, it is the duty of the UN and its membership to devise means to implement them,'' he said.
Denying the charge that Pakistan provided material support to terrorism in Kashmir, he said the Kashmib struggle was 'spontaneous and indigenous and no external forces were involved in it'.
However, Munir's assertion on militancy were questioned by the India's representative Rajesh Prasad who said, ''Pakistan is patronising terrorists by providing them moral, material and financial support.''
Prasad said Pakistan's statement was yet another indication of its obsessive hostility towards India. He said the root cause of the Kashmir problem was cross-border terrorism, which was encouraged, carried on and financed by Pakistan.
Prasad said the Indian government had repeatedly expressed its readiness for resumption of dialogue with Pakistan, but provided Islamabad created a conducive atmosphere for the same.
Referring the Lahore process, he said it showed India's intentions to settle all disputes with Pakistan through dialogue, but Islamabad scuttled the process through its intrusion in Kargil, which heightened tension in the region.
Pakistan's representative raked up the Kashmir issue again when he spoke on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference on the issue of self-determination in the context of the Palestinian problem.
Reacting to this, Prasad said Pakistan had denied basic rights to the people living in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.
UNI
COMPLETE COVERAGE Government initiated ceasefire in J&K
External Link Organisation of Islamic Conference
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