HARARE Reuter: Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said that Pakistan has shown no positive sign of wanting to improve relations with India and asked Islamabad’s friends to stop it from making a nuclear bomb.
Gandhi also accused Sri Lanka of holding up a solution to the problem of Tamil demands for autonomy at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.
“Sri Lanka has taken one and a half years to do anything. Hundreds or thousands of people have been killed in Sri Lanka mostly at the hands of Sri Lankan forces who are not acting under proper control” he told a press conference on last day of the nonaligned movement summit.
Gandhi who is scheduled.to leave for New Delhi said Pakistan’s nuclear programme is clearly for military purposes.
“India has nuclear capability to make a bomb but it will not make one” he said.
Pakistan has denied that it wants to make a bomb.
The Indian leader said he met Pakistan’s President Zia ul Haq in Harare and discussed bilateral issues “We have been trying to improve our relations with Pakistan but the process has been slowed down by Pakistan.
“We cannot do everything on our side”.
“If they want to improve relations then there should be a positive sign from Pakistan” Gandhi said.
He accused Islamabad of setting aside money for the Liberation of Kashmir.
One third of Kashmir over which India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since 1947 is held by Pakistan. The other two thirds are under Indian control.
He said Sri Lanka was delaying giving more autonomy to its Tamil ethnic minority. He noted that a peace plan sponsored by India had been agreed almost 18 months ago and added “If they (Colombo) do not like our help we are prepared to withdraw it”.
Gandhi firmly denied Sri Lankan allegations that Tamil separatists were getting military training in Indian camps. “There are no restrictions on movement in India. If you find a single camp in India we will close it down” he told a Sri Lankan journalist.
About 4000 people have been killed in the past three years in the Tamil separatist fight for an independent state in the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka
Gandhi who handed over chairmanship of the 101-nation nonaligned movement to Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Robert Mugabe this week denied the movement was leaning towards the Soviet Union.
“We evaluate issues on which we feel strongly. They (the two superpowers) should read them and try to understand how 101 nations are reacting that way” Gandhi said.
“The nonaligned is a new way of thinking not in terms of wars or blocs” he said when asked if the nonaligned states would consider forming a collective defense force.
Gandhi said India did not consider it self a superpower in the subcontinent “There is no question of hegemony coming from India” he said
Article extracted from this publication >> September 12, 1986
