India irked over UN private debate

[abubakarkareemi]

UNITED NATIONS, June 20, 2002: A planned private Security Council discussion of the Kashmir dispute has angered India and spurred a boycott by its allies, Russia and Mauritius, council envoys said on Wednesday.

Thursday's low-key and unpublicized seminar was organized by Mexico despite an informal agreement by council members earlier this month to leave the dispute to bilateral diplomatic efforts outside the United Nations.

"It's one way of having members of the Security Council deal with the issue without it being on the council agenda," said a council envoy. But Indian Ambassador Kamalesh Sharma said the seminar should not take place.

"We do not see a place for any multilateral effort under the current circumstances," Sharma said.

Indian diplomats have also complained that Mexico, which invited the outside speakers, had stacked the discussion to favour Pakistan's point of view in the dispute, diplomats said. But Sharma said he would not comment on whether the seminar was biased. "We know the kind of people who have been invited," he said.

Mexico's UN mission had no immediate comment. The session has no official status.

Russia and Mauritius, which have close ties to India, have quietly let it be known they would not attend.

Scheduled to address the seminar were Nicholas Platt, president of the New York-based Asia Society, Kashmiri U.S. businessman Farooq Kathwari and New York Times correspondent and Asia expert Barbara Crossette.

Platt, a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and the Philippines, and Kathwari, chairman of a home furnishings maker, are members of the Kashmir Study Group, headquartered in suburban Larchmont, New York. The group favors a stronger U.S. role in efforts to resolve the Kashmir dispute and has issued a plan calling for an independent Kashmir. (Reuters )