MANAMA (BAHRAIN): India must now face the prospect of the “Huriyat Conference gaining admission to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), probably with observer status.

‘The next full OIC meeting is in Tunis in April 1994at ministerial level to be followed by the summit in Saudi Arabia, Admission of the Huriyat even as an observer will give it the status of a liberation movement. Until now, at every OIC meeting since the Cairo Ministerial conference in August 1990, various Kashmiri groups, either those favoring independence Or merger with Pakistan, have turned up at the venue with Pakistan help to lobby for their case and distribute literature. The open identification of the Huriyat, under Abdul Ghani Lone, as the ‘moderate representatives of the people of Kashmir’ by the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Robin Raphel last month gives a falip to that group. Pakistan could exploit this at the OIC.

In the past few months, at international gatherings, both Islamabad and these separatist groups have been riding piggyback on each other. Apart from Ms.Raphel’s remarks giving credibility in the West to the Huriyat, another highly significant development took place during Benazir Bhutto’s recent stopover in Jeddah to meet King Fahd.

It is no secret that the Saudia are by far the most influential country in the OIC, Saudi Arabia’s stand on Kashmir has been consistently that of Islamabad namely “relevant U.N. resolutions,” though on occasions when it circulated its delegate’s speech as in Dakar in December 1991 there was no direct reference to Kashmir. But when Ms. Bhutto met the Saudi monarch in Jeddah after the Commonwealth summit, the king “particularly asked her about the third option.”

This disclosure was made by a Pak spokesman. He added that Ms. Bhutto replied that the third option independence for Kashmir was not part of the original settlement when India was partitioned. Until full details of MS, Bhutto’s remarks are available it will be ideal to speculate and appropriate to stay with the view that the third option remains a diplomatic ploy at the least. To avoid being upstaged, Pakistan may want the Huriyat in only as a guest but not as an observer. More significant is King Fahd’s enquiry about it In the Gulf, the UAE has supported national nights for Kashmir and the Saudis have backed the ‘relevant U.N. resolutions.”

One option available to New Delhi is to speak to OIC members with whom India has close economic ties and ask them to prevent giving the Huriyat the status of the Moro National Liberation Front or breakaway Northern Cyprus. This option has bleak prospects because, for instance, countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia whose trade and economic ties with India are deeper than they are with Pakistan have put their relationship in different compartments. In public, they will not bell the cat for India, though the UAE has often privately counselled restraint on Islamabad.

 

Article extracted from this publication >>  November 19, 1993