The Hindu : Pak. threatens to use n-weapons

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 31, 2002

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Pak. threatens to use n-weapons

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington May 30. Pakistan says it will resort to nuclear weapons even in a conventional war and that India should not have the ``licence to kill'', the country's new Ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram, told a news conference in New York today.

``India should not have the licence to kill with conventional weapons while Pakistan's hands are tied regarding other means to defend itself,'' he said.

Mr. Akram's comments — seen in some quarters as provocative — did not elicit any immediate response from diplomats or officials at the U.N.

His utterances come at a time when there is the definite feeling here and elsewhere that one way of lowering the temperature in the subcontinent is for both sides to stay away from inflammatory rhetoric.

Islamabad is using the U.N. to put its case across and, in the process, urging the Security Council to take up not just the issue of tension along the border with India but also the question of Kashmir.

``Whenever there is threat of use of force against a member-state and threat to international peace and security, there is an obligation for the Council to address that situation,'' Mr. Akram said and stressed that the Security Council had the responsibility of addressing the Kashmir issue.

The U.N. Secretary-General and other member-states had obligations to implement the Security Council Resolutions.

He said Britain had suggested that a 300-strong helicopter monitoring force be deployed along the Kashmir border. According to Mr. Akram, the proposal was made during the recent visit of the British Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, to Islamabad. Pakistan would consider the proposal if India too accepted it, Mr. Akram was quoted as saying.

Britain apparently told Pakistan that it had carried out a study and concluded such a force would be sufficient to monitor the LoC.

Mr. Akram defined what constituted ``aggression'' by India that would be responded to by Pakistan.

``Any action by India to attack across the Line of Control, across the International Border, any aerial attack on our territory, any attack on our assets like shipping, any action to economically strangulate Pakistan — all of these will be acts of aggression by India and will be responded to by Pakistan,'' he said.

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