M A I N   N E W S

NAM agrees to debar Pak
From Sujit Chatterjee

CARTAGENA (Colombia), April 10 — In a diplomatic triumph for India, the non-aligned Foreign Ministers today agreed that Pakistan and other military-ruled states should be debarred from its membership but left a final decision on the issue for the summit in Dhaka next year.

In yet another significant move that could prevent the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) from passing Pakistan-sponsored anti-India resolutions in future, the ministers asked the OIC to follow the principles of the movement and desist from attacking member states. Many OIC countries are also members of NAM.

The final declaration adopted at the end of two-day NAM ministerial meet endorsed New Delhi’s demand that military regimes overthrowing democratic governments should find no place in the movement.

“We welcome the decision of the Organisation of the African Unity (OAU) in Algiers in July 1999 calling for the restoration, before the next OAU summit, of constitutional legality in states whose governments have come to power through unconstitutional means,” the 63-page declaration said.

“We strongly recommend that this issue be considered by the movement at the next summit” at Dhaka next year, it said.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said at the conclusion of the conference: “We have every reason to be extremely satisfied with the outcome of the meet. There have been significant gains for India which includes a greater recognition of its true position.”

Indian officials said the consensus at the conference that the military dictatorships which subverted constitutional process was based on the fact that the evolving political global culture had no place for such regimes. Pakistan had already been suspended from the Commonwealth following the military take-over in October last year.

The Foreign Ministers of 115-member NAM grouping strongly criticised the Taliban in Afghanistan for allowing its territory for terrorist activities.

They condemned “the continuing use of the Afghan territory, especially areas controlled by the Taliban, for sheltering and training of terrorists and planning of terrorist acts.”

The meet voiced “deep disturbance” by the significant increase in cultivation, production and trafficking of drugs in the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan saying these could contribute to the war-making capabilities of Afghans.

The External Affairs Minister told Indian journalists that the move indicated a “significant shift” in NAM’s understanding of the menace of terrorism which was “vital to India’s national interests.” It was for the first time that India and Iran were involved in drafting of the clause on Afghanistan in the declaration.

Calling for the global nuclear disarmament, the ministers stressed “the significance of achieving universal adherence to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, including by all-member states.

The conference rejected the doctrine of “humanitarian intervention” thrown up for discussion by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the grounds that it was yet another proposal to subvert the sovereignty and territorial integrity of any nation.

The officials said the ministerial meeting was of the view that any such instrument for intervention by powerful countries in so-called trouble spots was bound to be misused politically.

The conference also adopted three special resolutions on the forthcoming millennium summit of the UN, calling the effective participation of all its members through a transparent inter-governmental process of the deliberations and negotiations to ensure ownership of outcome.

On the economic front, the declaration said imbalance in the implementation of the WTO agreements should be urgently addressed especially in the areas relating to the existing obligations by the developed countries in the field of textile and agriculture.

Mr Jaswant Singh, talking to Indian journalists termed Pakistan’s offer to resume dialogue with India as a “public relations” exercise and said Islamabad had to demonstrate “much greater seriousness, transparency and commitment” for the bilateral ties to be put back on track.

“It is not a public relations exercise....It is a question of bilateral relations. Pakistan must demonstrate much greater seriousness of purpose, transparency and commitment,” he said.

Asked if he had any exchange of views with his Pakistani counterpart Abdul Sattar on the fringes of the meet, he said: “I only exchanged customary greetings as I have known him since the time he was Pakistan’s High Commissioner in India.” — PTI