Kuala Lumpur, February 23
Pakistan today scored a diplomatic point of sorts here on the eve of the two-day Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit when the NAM’s Political Committee of senior officials decided to drop reference to “state-sponsored terrorism” from a draft document on terrorism.
However, India managed subtle manoeuvres on the NAM draft on terrorism, which was nearly complete tonight, as the document is going to have a reference to the UN Security Council Resolution 1373, which advocates the use of force against a terrorism-exporting country by the affected country or the UN.
Besides, the NAM draft on terrorism has accepted India’s position that there is a link between weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and terrorism and there is a real danger of terrorists using WMDs, senior officials here said.
A pervasive feeling among the large majority of the 116 member countries here is that the Islamic countries are being targeted in the name of the fight against terrorism. Nearly 50 per cent of NAM countries, including the host country Malaysia, are Islamic.
The draft on terrorism had run into a plethora of complexities, Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal admitted. Pakistan and some other countries had protested against the inclusion of three paragraphs in the draft document.
Their objection was on the phrase, “state-sponsored terrorism”, and they wanted to go into the “root cause” of terrorism.
Mr Sibal said India realised that it was just not possible to forge a consensus on an issue like terrorism on a multi-lateral forum as every country saw things from its own perspective. The looming war on Iraq was another factor which complicated the debate in this regard. A host of countries came up with differences over the forms of terrorism and the definition of terrorism.
The NAM’s Political Committee of senior officials today also decided to come out with the Kuala Lumpur Declaration and its main features were agreed upon. There are no difficulties from the Indian point of view to the proposed declaration, Mr Sibal said.
The NAM summit is also expected to come out with a resolution on Iraq, calling upon the USA to resolve the issue through diplomacy rather than war.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, speaking on the sidelines of the NAM meet, ruled out talks with Pakistan and described the hostile neighbour as epicentre of terrorism. Mr Sinha said Pakistan had exported terrorism to Afghanistan, India and the rest of the world which was clearly demonstrated by a large number of arrests of Pakistanis in the USA and Europe. He said Washington must exert more pressure on Pakistan.
