NEW DELHI: Indian government authorities have evidently been nonplussed by the remarks of U.S. President Bill Clinton focusing on Kashmir as one of the international crisis spots. What has added to India’s discomfiture further is the offer of U.N. secretary general Dr.Boutros Boutros Ghali to mediate in the dispute.
President Clinton had noted in his address to the U.N. general assembly last month: Bloody ethnic, religious and civil wars rage from Angola to the Caucasus to Kashmir.”
Indian government spokesman maintained studied silence on the U.S. President’s remarks although the BJP President Atal Behari Vajpayee did express un happiness.
Officers of India’s extemal affairs ministry let out their private reactions to selected newsmen. There was “concerned curiosity” and a sense of unhappiness. It was noted that the President chose the U.N, forum to air his country’s views on Kashmir and these could not be regarded as off-the-cuff remarks.
In fact, the U.S. government’s stand has been that the entire Kashmir area is a disputed area which requires it to be resolved. The President has now evidently upgraded the problem into an international crisis point which warrants international attention urgently.
Indian officers think that the U.S. President’s speech has served to further internationalize the Kashmir issue whereas India’s efforts throughout has been to keep it as a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan. That is why Delhi has been laying much emphasis on the Shimla Agreement.
Indian officers have noted a shift in the U.S. Kashmir Stand in the recent past. The U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, Robin Raphel, in her first Statement after taking over stated that the Shimla agreement had proved ineffectual in resolving the Kashmir dispute. She said, “The United States has observed that in the 20 years since that accord was signed, it has not been used in any way really to deal with the Kashmir dispute.”
What India could not tell the U.S. President has been conveyed by prime minister Narasimha Rao to Ghali in response to his offer of mediation on the Kashmir dispute, In a letter, Rao told the U.N. official last week that the issue can only be settled bilaterally between India and Pakistan. The U.N. secretary-general devoted one para to the Kashmir issue and offered his mediation should the two countries requests it. He bracketed the Kashmir issue with such conflict points as Iraq Kuwait confliet. Afghanistan, Angola, Lebenon etc. The Indian prime minister’s letter is interpreted by observers as a polite “no” to the U.N. mediation. India fears that the U.N. might use the human rights violation issue a5 a “pretext” to intervene in the Kashmir. India therefore took a series of counter measures, the Rao letter to Ghali being one such measure, others were Indian briefs to diplomats of several counties on Kashmir, and the prime minister undertook a tour of China, Korea and Iran. India also offered fresh talks to _ Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. Apart from that Delhi hastily produced a human rights commission to take the alleged violations in Kashmir and else the commission is altogether another question.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 8, 1993
