Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, March 10, 2001
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Online edition of India's National Newspaper Saturday, March 10, 2001 |
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Terrorism to feature in talks with Kofi Annan
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, MARCH 9. India is expected to raise developments in
Afghanistan, international terrorism and the expansion of the
United Nations Security Council during the visit of the U.N.
Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, next week.
Mr. Annan will visit India for three days from March 15 as part
of his South Asia tour. Prior to his trip to India, he is slated
to visit Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.
According to a spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs,
India is expected to raise the subject of international terrorism
with Mr. Annan. New Delhi's draft comprehensive convention on
terrorism is finding wide support among the U.N. members. India
is also a signatory to the convention, sponsored by France, on
the financing of international terrorism in the U.N. General
Assembly.
Developments in Afghanistan, especially in the wake of the
destruction of the Bamiyan statues by the Taliban, are expected
to be discussed. India, along with the U.S and Russia, has co-
sponsored the resolution on sanctions against the Taliban. The
developments in Bamiyan, according to analysts, are likely to
reinforce the Indian stand which advocates stringent economic and
political restrictions. India has also made its position on
Afghanistan explicit during earlier discussions with the U.N.
special envoy on Afghanistan, Mr. Frances Vendrell.
Both sides are also excepted to discuss U.N. peacekeeping
operations. In fact, Mr. Annan will visit the Rajputana Rifles
centre, where Indian troops bound for peacekeeping missions, are
acquainted with their responsibilities and obligations. He will
later deliver a talk on peacekeeping at the United Services
Institution.
During his stay, Mr. Annan will meet the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal
Behari Vajpayee, and the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant
Singh. While in the capital, he will address the Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Mr. Annan, who visits
Hyderabad on March 17, will address the Confederation of Indian
Industry there.
By B. Muralidhar Reddy
ISLAMABAD, MARCH 9. The Pakistan-based militant groups and
organisations operating in Kashmir have expressed disappointment
over reports that the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi
Annan, has no plans to meet representatives of their outfits in
the course of his visit to the sub-continent beginning tomorrow.
While the United Jehadi Council (UJC), a conglomerate of militant
outfits, said it had no hopes from Mr. Annan's visit, the Jammu
and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman, Mr. Amanullah Khan,
expressed `anguish' over reports that Mr. Annan had no programme
of meeting the Kashmiri leadership.
The militant outfits are particularly peeved at the fact that
while Mr. Annan has time to pay a visit to the Afghan refugee
camps in the North West Frontier Province, he has no plan to
visit the Kashmir refugee camps in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
In a statement here, the UJC, led by the Hizb-ul- Mujahideen
chief, Syed Salahuddin, said the United Nations had lost all its
credibility in the eyes of the Kashmiris as it had failed to
implement its long-standing resolutions on Kashmir.
``If the U.N. wants to revive its credibility, then it should
practically intervene in Kashmir as it did in Iraq and East Timor
and force India to get out of Kashmir. The Kashmiri people have
totally lost confidence in this world organisation because of its
criminal negligence and apathy about seeking a solution to the
Kashmir dispute.''
In a separate statement, the JKLF chairman regretted that Mr.
Annan had no plans to meet the Kashmiri leaders and maintained
that as per the U.N. Charter, it was his bounden duty to resolve
the Kashmir dispute. Kashmir posed the greatest danger to world
peace with two nuclear powers' - India and Pakistan - daggers
drawn on the conflict. The dispute had caused 80,000 deaths and
it was the duty of Mr. Annan to resolve the dispute.
``It was therefore imperative for the U.N. Secretary-General, in
the interests of international peace, if not to save South Asia
from a probable catastrophe, to do all he and the world body
could do to avoid that catastrophe,'' the statement said.
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