ISLAMABAD, 23 September 2003 — Pakistan complained yesterday that the United Nations and the international community have not done enough to help settle its territorial dispute with neighboring India over Kashmir.
The comments by a Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman came a day before the UN General Assembly opens its session in New York.
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is to raise the Kashmir issue at the assembly, spokesman Masood Khan said.
A 1948 UN resolution calls for Kashmiris on both sides of the disputed border to decide through a vote whether a united Kashmir should join predominantly Hindu India or majority Muslim Pakistan. The vote has never taken place.
India and Pakistan have improved relations in recent months and said they favor peace talks that include a discussion on Kashmir. But progress has been slow, and no dates for the talks have been set.
“Kashmir has to be resolved in accordance with principles agreed to at the United Nations,” Khan told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad. “I think that if you want to look at the role of the United Nations in this, they have not done enough.”
“I think that the international community is not doing enough” to bring the two sides to the negotiating table, Khan said.
India accuses Pakistan of training and arming secessionists in Kashmir, a charge denied by Pakistan, which says it provides only diplomatic support.
Kashmir is the main cause of tension in relations between India and Pakistan. New Delhi controls two-thirds of the territory.
Last year the nuclear-armed rivals deployed about 1 million troops along their border following an attack on the Indian Parliament New Delhi blamed on Pakistan’s spy network and militants. Pakistan denied involvement and international diplomacy pulled them back from the brink of war.
