Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Pakistan's First Right of Reply under item 5: the Right to Self-Determination

Thank you, Mr. Chairman,

I am constrained to respond to the distinguished representative of India, both because of what he said but equally because of what he failed to say. What he failed to say, Mr Chairman, was to respond to the proposals which were made by my delegation to "humanize" the situation in Kashmir.

There are over six hundred thousand Indian troops in the territory of Jammu and Kashmir - over three hundred thousand troops in the Kashmir valley which is an area 70 miles by 30 miles, smaller than Belgium- where the troops almost equal the number of grown men. If this territory has exercised self-determination, if these people have decided to join and stay with India, why does India need over half a million troops to control these people and keep them in bondage? India should release them, let them be free, withdraw its troops and let the Kashmiris decide where they want to go.

There is no point in railing against Pakistan, we have our own history, India has its own history; and I too can delve in detail at the misdemeanors of India including the three aggressions against Pakistan in order to dismember our country.

I will not go to that history today. But today, and for the last several months, the Indian Prime Minister and the leadership of India has, day in and day out, threatened war against Pakistan. And they have gone on a rampage of killings in Kashmir. The people of Kashmir are being killed daily. They are civilian people. Stop India! Please stop this state terrorism in Kashmir.

This is what is at stake here. This Commission should act now to save lives in Kashmir. We have made proposals. Our proposals are true to the conscience of mankind. Do not ignore them if peace is to return to South Asia. Kashmir must be at peace first. Unless the killings stop in Kashmir, there will be no peace between India and Pakistan,

Pakistan's second right of reply

Thank you, Mr. Chairman,

In a report issued a couple of days ago, Amnesty International describes the background of the Kashmir problem and the human rights situation in Kashmir in the following way, it says "the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir has been grave for over a decade with dozens of cases of torture, deaths in custody and extra-judicial killings reported every year. Currently, the entire leadership of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) is held in preventive detention following their peaceful calls for an election boycott in 1999".

My Indian colleague talks about terrorism. Let me read to you a report. It was issued by FAS, an independent body of US Scientists, regarding "RAW", the Research and Analysis Wing- the Indian Intelligence Agency. This paper records at least a dozen terrorist activities in Pakistan conducted by the Indian Intelligence Agency. The RAW also, since 1971, according to this Report executed a hijacking of an Indian Airliner to Lahore in 1971 which was attributed to the Kashmiris to give a terrorist dimension to the Kashmiri national movement. Soon the extent of RAW's involvement was made public. They tried to repeat this exercise this year and they have tried to repeat terrorist actions every year through the renegade groups they finance - as well as the GONGOs who come here paid by India to malign my country. This is a well oiled Intelligence operation of which my colleague from India knows very well, I do not have to elaborate on that.