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Annan In Pakistan Discusses Kashmir And Relations With India
ISLAMABAD, March 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan opened talks Sunday with Pakistani leaders on the country's tense relations with India, nuclear proliferation in South Asia and the situation in Afghanistan, officials told news agencies on Sunday.
Annan, while in Pakistan, earlier met with President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar and discussed the 53-year-old Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, among other regional issues, officials said.
Tarar stressed the need for a settlement of the Kashmir dispute "for durable peace in South Asia," they said. Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar called on the U.N. to play an "effective role" in implementing resolutions for a referendum in Kashmir - divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both.
Months after testing their nuclear devices in May 1998, Indian and Pakistani leaders gathered in the Pakistani city of Lahore and agreed to resolve differences through talks.
The Lahore agreement of February 1999 was seen as a major step towards peace between two nations who have already fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir. Calling for "a return to the spirit of the 1999 Lahore Declaration," Annan urged India and Pakistan to "sign the nuclear test ban treaty."
"I call upon both India and Pakistan to retain the spirit of the Lahore declaration. This will require restraint, wisdom and constructive steps from both sides," he said in his arrival statement.
Meanwhile, some 200 Kashmiris staged a peaceful demonstration outside the foreign ministry as Annan arrived for the meeting. They demanded the U.N. intervene and provide Kashmiris with the right of self-determination. They also called on India to withdraw its forces from the state.
The festering Kashmir dispute has caused two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since their 1947 independence from Britain and the issue has become a potential flash point following their tit-for-tat nuclear tests in May 1998.
Pakistan wants the U.N. to implement its 1948-49 resolutions for a referendum in Kashmir that will allow the state's people to decide which country they want to join.
Annan said the UN resolutions on Kashmir "require the cooperation of both parties to be implemented." India has refused to allow a plebiscite, insisting that Kashmir is an integral part of its territory.
Reassuring Annan, the Pakistani government reiterated Friday that it would not get involved in an arms race with India by jacking up the defense budget as the latter did, according to a report by the Associated Press of Pakistan.
Press Secretary to Pakistani Chief Executive Major General Rashid Qureshi said in Rawalpindi that military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has already announced that there was no likelihood that Pakistan would increase defense allocations in order to join an arms race with India.
However, appropriate steps are in the offing to effectively counter the hike in the Indian defense budget while the Pakistani government, added Rashid, would observe maximum restraint.
Annan was scheduled to meet with Musharraf later Sunday to urge him to sign on to the nuclear non-proliferation Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
India, Pakistan and North Korea have not signed the CTBT but whose ratification is required for the treaty to come into force.
He is also expected to discuss with Musharraf the prospects for the restoration of democracy following the 1999 coup.
Annan arrived here late Saturday at the start of a weeklong visit to South Asia that will also take him to Nepal, Bangladesh and India.
Annan's visit is also aimed at stepping up efforts to help the suffering Afghan people. United Nations officials have warned that a million Afghans are facing famine this year due to the worst drought in memory and the ongoing civil war between the ruling Taliban Islamic militia and opposition forces.
He will visit Afghan refugee camps in northwestern Pakistan before leaving for Nepal on Monday.
"I am personally worried about the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Our most urgent priority is to provide the Afghan people, wherever they are, with the assistance they need," he said.
A spokesman for the Taliban embassy in Islamabad said the foreign minister would raise objections to the latest sanctions imposed upon them by the U.N. Security Council when he meets Annan.
The sanctions were introduced after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, wanted in the United States for allegedly masterminding the twin-bomb attacks at U.S. embassies in Africa three years ago.
Saturday, Russia formally imposed its own stiff set of sanctions aimed at the Taliban that ban imports and exports of any militarily useful products, freezes any bin Laden assets, excludes any Taliban controlled aircraft from flying over Russian territory and prohibits most Taliban officials from entering Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the decree that brings Russia into compliance with the U.N. Security Council resolution passed in October 1999.
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