Vajpayee rebuffs Mandela
Says no to mediation on Kashmir

DURBAN, Sept 3 (PTI) — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today firmly rejected third-party mediation on the Kashmir issue and bluntly told South African President Nelson Mandela that his suggestions in this regard were "uncalled for and unacceptable".

In a rebuff to Mr Mandela, the new Chairman of NAM, Mr Vajpayee told the summit here: "Let me say this loud and clear that there is no place for any third-party involvement in this process, howsoever well-intentioned."

Asserting that Jammu and Kashmir was and would remain an integral part of India, the Prime Minister told the gathering of the 114-member grouping that the "real problem" was one of cross-border terrorism.

Mr Vajpayee’s address underwent last-minute changes to include a firm response to Mr Mandela’s suggestion to the summit’s inaugural session yesterday that NAM members should "lend all strength" to the resolution of the Kashmir issue.

Mr Vajpayee left Mr Mandela in no doubt about Delhi’s reaction to his comments dismissing them as "uncalled for and unacceptable" when he met him at a banquet hosted for NAM leaders by the South African President last night.

The Prime Minister was believed to have conveyed India’s shock and displeasure over Mr Mandela’s reference to the Kashmir issue.

Indian delegation sources said Mr Vajpayee told Mr Mandela that such a reference should not have been made at all at the summit.

However, there was no response from Mr Mandela when Mr Vajpayee expressed his "disappointment" on his remarks, the sources said.

He referred to his "cordial" meeting with Pakistan Premier Nawaz Sharif in Colombo in July and the continuing dialogue here between the two sides, and said, "this (forum of NAM) is not the place to air the differences in some of our positions."

"The Simla Agreement, which both India and Pakistan have ratified, provides an agreed mechanism for resolving these differences amicably among ourselves," he said.

During his speech, Mr Vajpayee explained India’s security concerns that led to the Pokhran nuclear tests and suggested a nuclear arms convention to eliminate the weapons of mass destruction.

He also called for a global conference on combating terrorism and setting up an agenda for the management of international economy.

Apparently disapproving the recent US missile strikes on Sudan and Afghanistan, Mr Vajpayee said the fight against terrorism called for a "concerted international effort" and it cannot be fought by unilateral or selective action.

Calling for an international meeting on terrorism, he said the scourge "is a plain naked assault on humanity and the values that civilised societies live by".

While some countries were unable to agree on a definition of terrorism for reasons of "political convenience or worse", some others with "myopic loftiness" were far too willing to judge democracies on the same scale on which they placed terrorists who battered open societies, he said.

Mr Vajpayee also utilised the opportunity to allay fears that the nuclear tests in South Asia raised the spectre of an arms race and heightened tension.

"These apprehensions are misplaced. India continues to seek good relations with all its neighbours and to work with them to build on our commonalities and shared aspirations," he said.

He said India conducted the nuclear tests in a geo-political environment where "our security was becoming ever more threatened by the overt and covert nuclearisation of our neighbourhood".

Mr Vajpayee said India did not believe that nuclear weapons were to stay and offered to be the first to join negotiations on abolishing nuclear weapons if established nuclear powers agreed to such a move.

"Today, I urge them, as India has urged them so many times before, to join us in NAM in negotiating a nuclear weapon convention, through which we can eliminate this last category of weapons of mass destruction," he said.

Mr Vajpayee called for priority to set an agenda for the management of the international economy, and said protectionism had returned to markets of the developed world.

Trade and investment were being increasingly used to promote political objectives on labour standards, intellectual property rights, human rights and environment, he said.

"These are defences thrown up against recent successes of some developing countries. These members of our movement have emerged in the vanguard of international growth, but others have not only been economically marginalised by globalisation, even the stability of their societies is threatened," he said.

"In each country, the marketplace has to be run according to rules which say that the country must determine as the only guardian of the well-being of its people," he said.

Meanwhile, South African President Nelson Mandela today said his remarks on Jammu and Kashmir at the NAM summit yesterday were not aimed at hurting India’s sentiments and should be seen in the general context of the international political and security scenario.

"The reference should not be seen in isolation and was in the general context of the international political and security scenario," a spokesman of the South African Government quoting Mr Mandela said here.

Mr Mandela made the clarification in a bid to assuage the ruffled feelings following strong protests from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at the state banquet hosted by the South African leader last night.

NAM supports India

DURBAN, Sept 3 (UNI) — The 12th nonaligned movement (NAM) summit today endorsed India’s initiative by adopting a broad approach for the total elimination of nuclear weapons in its declaration.

The declaration by the 113-member NAM, however, skipped condemning the nuclear tests by Delhi and Islamabad in May this year despite strong insistence from South Africa, Indonesia and several other countries on this count.

Protracted deliberations on the nuclear question stretching for more than four days ultimately ended by accepting the "positive commitment" made by the two countries that they would exercise utmost restraint on nuclear issues in the South Asian region.

The two countries also conveyed to NAM that they would adhere to important provisions of the comprehensive test-ban treaty, although both of them had not signed it.

There was a heated debate between the Indian representatives and their South African counterparts in the political subcommittee on nuclear disarmament on the adoption of NAM’s position on nuclear proliferation.

The declaration, while noting the complexity arising out of nuclear tests in the South Asian region "considered the positive commitment" by parties concerned to exercise restraint in the region.

It also stressed the need for a bilateral dialogue to secure peaceful solution of all outstanding issues and the promotion of confidence-building in the security-related issues.

Indian representatives proposed a global nuclear convention for arriving at agreements on a time-bound programme for the elimination of nuclear weapons. This proposal was widely welcomed by member-countries.

However, South Africa, which is hosting the summit, was very critical of the nuclear tests of India and Pakistan stating that it had triggered an arms race in the region. South Africa was also of the opinion that the blasts had weakened NAM’s stand on nuclear disarmament and could embolden other countries to enter into a nuclear race. Indian sources while expressing satisfaction at the NAM declaration on the nuclear issue, said there had been a general understanding of India’s compulsions to undertake the tests.

There was a general opinion among the member-countries that although nuclear tests were something which nobody could appreciate or approve, the movement could not take a rigid position on nuclear explosions in South Asia.

The Indian proposal for the global nuclear convention envisaged a time-bound programme to eliminate all nuclear weapons and to prohibit their production, acquisition and use before the end of the century.

Mandela assailed for remarks on Kashmir
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 — The South African President, Dr Nelson Mandela, came under sharp attack today with political parties taking strong exception to his reference to Kashmir in his inaugural address at the NAM summit in Durban yesterday.

The BJP said Dr Mandela had broken the tradition of not raising bilateral issues at the forum.

The BJP vice-president, Mr K.L. Sharma, told newspersons that Dr Mandela had departed from the agreed convention that no bilateral issue should be raised at NAM.

In a similar reaction, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, described Dr Mandela’s reference as "unfortunate" and said that the host country should not have raised a bilateral issue.

"If I was there, I would have immediately reacted", Dr Abdullah said in reply to a question. "For the first time, the President of a host country at a NAM Summit has taken up a bilateral issue at the international forum. Kashmir should be settled by India and Pakistan alone", the Chief Minister said.

He said he would like to meet Dr Mandela in South Africa to convey his viewpoint. "Let the Prime Minister return to India, I will discuss my plans with him", he said.

"Kashmir is an internal affair and we will discuss it with Pakistan", he said.

The former Defence Minister, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav also expressed opposition to any third-party mediation to resolve the Kashmir issue. India should not accept any such offer from any quarter, Mr Yadav said.

Pak rakes up issue again

DURBAN, Sept 3 (UNI) — Showing utter disregard for NAM principles, Pakistan today raked up the Kashmir issue at the 12th summit, stating that "the unresolved problem is a major cause of tension and instability and has led to new dangers in the South Asian region."

"We are afraid that the lack of progress on the Kashmir issue would lead to further deterioration in the security environment in the South Asian region" Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said in his address at the summit.

The issue was raised by Islamabad barely 10 hours after the foreign secretaries of the two countries agreed to give the required push to the process of the resumption of the official-level dialogue.

Mr Aziz also accused India of triggering a nuclear race in the region.

"It was imposed on us by India’s provocative nuclear tests. By abandoning all restraint, India shattered the strategic balance in the region," he said.

The Pakistan Foreign Minister, who held meetings with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Minister of State for External Affairs Vasundhara Raje on steps to improve the bilateral ties, said Delhi was "flaunting its new found power of nuclear blackmail and belligerence."

"Pakistan was left with no option but to respond in order to safeguard and restore the balance and to prevent any misadventure on the part of our neighbour," he said.

Mr Aziz said the Kashmir issue, which involved the destiny of people, could not be wished away. The people of Kashmir must be given the right to self determination, which had been denied to them for the past 50 years."

"NAM has held the inalienable right to self determination to be an article of its faith and it must uphold the same principle for the oppressed people of Kashmir," he added.

Pakistan pleased

DURBAN, Sept 3 (UNI) — Pakistan today hailed NAM Chairman Nelson Mandela’s reference to Jammu and Kashmir in his opening speech yesterday, stating that it fully recognised the desire of the international community for immediate resolution of the contentious issue.

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed told UNI that it was very appropriate on the part of NAM Chairman to highlight the importance of the resolution of the Kashmir issue which had remained the bone of contention between the two neighbours for the past five decades.

Mr Mandela called for an immediate resolution of the Kashmir issue which induced a sharp reaction from India which said it rejected third party mediation on the Jammu and Kashmir issue.

Mr Shamshad Ahmed said the South African President’s concern about the Kashmir issue was an expression of his popular support for people of Jammu and Kashmir.