PRESS CONFERENCE BY PAKISTAN

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PAKISTAN

The status quo in Kashmir is no longer tenable and must be altered in order to reach a peaceful settlement which addressed the aspiration of the Kashmir people, Mushahid Hussain, former Federal Minister for Information of Pakistan, told correspondents this afternoon during a press conference at Headquarters. Other participants in the press conference, sponsored by Pakistan, were Sardar Qayyum Khan, Chairman of the National Kashmir Committee and former President and Prime Minister of AZAD Kashmir, and Prem K. Shahani, member of the National Kashmir Committee.

The current crisis between India and Pakistan, which seemed to have been defused somewhat, was the third crisis over the question of Kashmir in the last three years, since both countries went nuclear, Mr. Hussain said.  The involvement of the international community, in particular the Unites States and, to some extent, the United Nations, had been that of a "fire-brigade dousing fires".  The time had come to address the critical underlying causes of those eruptions.  There had been United Nations resolutions focusing on a Kashmir question, the latest one Security Council resolution 1172 (1998).

He said of the two areas of crisis in the region, the Middle East and South Asia, the stakes of the international community in the latter were higher, because one fifth of humanity were residing there.  It was also the only crisis where two nuclear forces were facing each other, and the Unites States war on terrorism was focused in that area.  It was time for the international community to put in place a process of de-escalation, dialogue and a resolution of the Kashmir question. Such a process was in place in the Middle East, but in Kashmir a peace process was not yet in place.  The upcoming "sham" elections in September, organized by India, must be seen as an exercise to substitute for the promised plebiscite, and not an exercise to allow the Kashmiris to determine their destiny freely in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and international law.  He said, on the Indian side, human rights organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and media should be allowed to monitor the situation there, as they were allowed to do on the Pakistani side.

Mr. Khan said, in the past the start of a peace process had been closer, but, mostly because of political rhetoric around concepts of victory and defeat, things had gone wrong again.  He asked correspondents to avoid those concepts.  If there was a victory, it was a victory for everybody; if there was a defeat, it would be a defeat for everybody.  Something tangible needed to be done.  There was a lot of stress on freedom fighters in Kashmir and stopping the violence, but once a peace process was visible and acceptable to everybody, one could sit down.  The freedom fighters in Kashmir did not want to commit suicide.  The upcoming elections, if fair and impartial, would certainly be a helpful first step.  If that was not the case, tensions would rise on both sides, which would pose a seriously dangerous situation.  An intra-Kashmiri dialogue was necessary, which he had promoted for a long time. In order to create a conducive atmosphere, the Kashmir Committee had decided to send a delegation to Delhi.

Infiltrations by extremists had gone on, as was common knowledge, he said, but had been stopped.  Kashmiris themselves were concerned, as they had families on both sides.  The Government of Pakistan had exercised its influence.  However, that should not be considered an end in itself, but should be followed-up to

defuse the situation further.  He stressed that Kashmir was the only region in the area where there had been no ethnic problems, except for external intervention. Discussing a final shape of Kashmir now was a waste of time.  A process had to be set up first.

Answering correspondents’ questions, Mr. Shahani said that the Kashmir question had been on the United Nations agenda since 1948.  He stressed, however, that there was no statute of limitations on United Nations resolutions.  He was only asking for execution of those resolutions.  All people in South Asia had been able to exercise their right to self-determination, except the people of Kashmir. The international community bore, therefore, a large responsibility for the situation, which he called a "test case".  Because of that lack of self- determination, two countries were now on the brink of war.  The United Nations had a monitoring group in place, which was supposed to monitor the Line of Control six months on the Pakistan side and six month on the Indian side.  That monitoring on the Indian side had not been allowed for several years, and still the international community claimed that the burden of peace was on Pakistan.

The current idea of joint patrols was not feasible, since that would recognize the Line of Control as a sort of boundary, while Kashmir was one entity.  Regarding crossovers of extremists, he said Pakistan had done whatever was feasible, but independent observers, such as from the United Nations, must certify it.  If the international community could not certify that, and the Indian side said no talks would take place before extremist infiltration stopped, what else could be done? he asked.

Mr. Khan welcomed the fact that India had stopped the air blockade, but that action must be followed by restoration of other mutually respected activities so that a conducive atmosphere for dialogue could be created.  Joint military patrols would not work in the current atmosphere.  First, the situation must be pacified by other steps.

Asked what the Committee had achieved, Mr. Hussain said the previous focus of Pakistan had been to put Kashmir on the international agenda.  The current visit of Committee’s representatives had coincided with the current crisis.  The delegation had visited Washington and talked to newspapers, such as The Washington Post, and had managed to convey the point that Kashmir should be the focus of discussions.  The delegation had also spoken to several "think tanks" and human rights organizations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch among them.

Mr. Khan said that the Committee had been discussing all possibilities to unlock positions.  It had also been trying to promote and coordinate efforts at the international and local level for a process towards a peaceful resolution of the problem, as bilateral dialogue had not produced any results.

Asked about extremists of non-Kashmir origin in the area, Mr. Khan said that there were a lot of allegations.  As in every situation, there were also some independent and uncontrollable elements. India had deployed some 800,000 personnel in a very small area.  If they could not stop the crossings, how could Pakistan do it? he asked.  Extremists were active all over the world, and Pakistan could not entirely be blamed for the problem.  Moreover, it was dangerous to push a moderate President, such as General Musharaf, too much.  The Kashmir issue was not an Islamic issue, but one of the right to self-determination.

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