Kashmir: OIC for U.N. mediation

By P. S. Suryanarayana

KUALA LUMPUR, JUNE 30. The Islamic Conference of Foreign Minister (ICFM) has urged the international community, and the United Nations in particular, to ``mediate'' in the India-Pakistan ``conflict'' which ``now threatens to lead to a nuclear confrontation.'' The call was made in the final communique of the ICFM's 27th session which concluded here today. the context for this plea was set out as the alleged ``heavy Indian bombing across the Control Line'' in Jammu and Kashmir.

While reference to a ``nuclearised South Asia'' were made during the four-day conference, the communique was bereft of any recommendation to Pakistan as the only Islamic state in possession of atomic weapons, or indeed to India.

On the generic question of nuclear disarmament, the ICFM - ministerial wing of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) - called upon ``all states to adhere'' to the Nuclear non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The OIC suggested that states with nuclear weapons should ``act forthwith'' and formulate an ``international binding treaty'' for shielding countries without such arsenal from a nuclear weapon-strike.

The OIC wanted the nuclear powers to ``exert pressure'' on Israel to accede to the NPT and to abide by the International Atomic Energy Agency's Comprehensive Safeguards System.

Expressing concern over the ``threat'' of a ``nuclear confrontation'' in South Asia in the specific context of the Kashmir dispute, the OIC called on its member-states to ``take all necessary measures to convince India to put an immediate end'' to the alleged rights violations in Kashmir.

Autonomy not discussed

The OIC wanted its member-countries to ``convince'' India to ``enable the people of Kashmir to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination in accordance with the (relevant) U.N. Security Council resolutions. It was further suggested that the U.N. Secretary General appoint ``a special representative'' and send a ``fact-finding mission to Jammu and Kashmir to probe alleged human right violation''. No mention was made in the communique regarding the latest debate in India over the question of autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir.

Asked later whether any OIC member-states had expressed reservations on any aspect of the communique's formulation on Jammu and Kashmir, the Malaysian Foreign Minister and Chairman of the 27th ICFM, said that there had been ``no controversy'' in view of the long-standing U.N. resolutions on this subject. While one Pakistani diplomat said no reservations had been expressed by any country, unlike in the past when Indonesia might have had second thoughts on account of its own East Timor problem at that time some other diplomats took the line that dissent, if any, would have been expressed at the committee state of the OIC deliberations. In any event, according to them, the final fine print disclosed no reservations.

On the West Asian situation - long recorded as the OIC's foremost Islamic ``cause'' - the communique called on the co-sponsors of the peace process to exert pressure on Israel to quicken the pace. The OIC asked Russia to continue negotiations with the representatives of the Chechen people. Taking cognisance of the latest situation in the Muslim autonomous region of southern Philippines, the OIC called upon Manila, as also the Moro National Liberation Front, to ensure the ``full implementation of the peace agreement''.

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