India rejects Pak. proposal, terms it 'propagandist'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 13. India today rejected Pakistan's offer of a restraint regime for nuclear and conventional weapons and maintained that it would enter into a dialogue only after Islamabad created a ``proper environment'' for talks.

To a question, the spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry described the offer as ``essentially propagandist''. ``There is nothing new in the proposal,'' he said, pointing out that it was part of the ``eight paragraphs'' included in the memorandum of understanding signed between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries in October 1998. It was thereafter incorporated in the Lahore declaration and signed by the Prime Ministers in February 1999.

The Lahore declaration contained the essential elements for promoting peace and stability and addressed the need for a dialogue on the nuclear and conventional fields, he observed.

The latest offer coincides with the resumption of Pakistan's non- proliferation dialogue with the United States. Analysts here pointed out that the offer might have been made to find favour with Washington, which has publicly stated its intent to see a de-escalation of military tensions in the subcontinent. According to the spokesman, Pakistan ``derailed the road map'', which would have ushered peace and stability in the subcontinent, by undertaking the ``Kargil misadventure''. It was, therefore, Pakistan's responsibility to create a proper environment for talks, based on the cessation of cross-border terrorism and termination of hostile propaganda against India.

Indicating that New Delhi was unlikely to be bound by a purely bilateral restraint regime, he pointed out that ``India's security concerns extended well beyond South Asia and were not country-specific''.

``It would not be appropriate to look at the issues of restraint and transparency in the narrow framework of India and Pakistan,'' he observed.

India's nuclear policy, he maintained, was based on a no-first use principle and a moratorium on testing. India also sought to avoid a nuclear arms race by adhering to a credible minimum deterrent.

The spokesman reacted sharply to the recent statement of the deposed Pakistani Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, on Kargil. Mr. Sharif's observations, he said, only reconfirmed that the ``misadventure'' across the Line of Control had been planned by the Pakistani Army.

Taking exception to the Pakistan regime's assertion of holding the Mujahideen responsible for the Kargil intrusion, he pointed out that Islamabad was deceiving both its armed forces and the people. Pakistan had also not disclosed the casualties suffered by it. By doing so, the regime was denying them the elementary right of ``trust and honour'' due to military forces all over the world.

New chief for U.N observer mission

UNITED NATIONS, JUNE 14. Major General Manuel Saavedra of Uruguay has been appointed chief military observer of the U.N. mission monitoring the Line of Control in Kashmir, the U.N. Secretary- General, Mr. Kofi Annan, announced.

Maj. Gen. Saavedra, who has served in the Uruguayan armed forces since 1961, currently heads the Military Institute of Branches and Specialities.

The U.N. military observer group in India and Pakistan was deployed in January 1999 to supervise a ceasefire between India and Pakistan in Kashmir. It currently has 49 members.

- AP

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Next     : Norway hails Jaswant initiative