DISARMAMENT: UN Urges Restraint Over Nuclear Muscle-Flexing

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, May 29 1998 (IPS) - The 15-member U.N. Security Council Friday urged the world’s two newly-anointed nuclear powers – India and Pakistan – to resume bilateral talks to resolve the long- festering dispute over Kashmir.

“The Council calls upon India and Pakistan to avoid any steps or statements that could lead to further instability to impede their bilateral dialogue,” Ambassador Njuguna Mahugu of Kenya told reporters.

After two days of closed-door discussions, the Security Council “strongly deplored” Pakistan’s nuclear tests conducted Thursday “despite overwhelming international concerns and protests.” Last week, the Council issued a similar statement criticising India’s underground tests.

Urging both India and Pakistan to refrain for any further tests, the Security Council said “such testing was contrary to the de facto moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, and to global efforts towards nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.”

The Council also affirmed the “crucial importance” of CTBT and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and appealed to India and Pakistan, and all other states that have not yet done so, to become parties to the two treaties “without delays and without conditions.”

The Council also asked India and Pakistan to participate in the proposed negotiations for a fissile material cut-off treaty in Geneva, with a view to reaching early agreement.

Speaking in his capacity as current President of the Security Council, Mahugu said the Council had made it clear that the tension in South Asia should be reduced and eliminated only through dialogue and not by the use or force or other military means.

The Council statement followed a war of words between India and neighbouring Pakistan after each conducted five underground tests in defiance of world opinion.

On Friday, Pakistan informed the five permanent members of the Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, of the possibility of an Indian military attack on its nuclear facilities. The Pakistani government also asked Secretary- General Kofi Annan “to counsel restraint on New Delhi.”

Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram said his country had been receiving “credible information” of the possibility of attacks on its nuclear installations. “Any such act would warrant a swift and massive retaliation with unforeseen circumstances,” he warned.

Akram said India had been warned in advance to desist from any “irresponsible act.” “Any attack on Pakistan’s nuclear facilities would be in violation of an existing agreement between the two countries,” he said.

Earlier, when asked for his reaction to Pakistan’s nuclear test, Annan told reporters that he “deplored” the explosions.

“We are at a time when we should do whatever we can to reduce nuclear weapons and not to get into a new race and new explostions,” he said. “Quite frankly, as we approach the next millenium, one would hope that the world will be focusing on how we can create a peaceful world – a world full of tolerance, a world in which people can live their lives and push economic and social development, and not get into a competitive arms race.”

Asked what the United Nations could do to prevent “an all-out war” in the region, Annan said: “I hope we are nowhere close to an all-out war. But obviously, the calls that have gone out for restraint on both governments, I am sure, are going to be heightened and we will do everything we can to get the governments to restrain their activities.”

Annan also urged India and Pakistan to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and called for a no-first-use pledge by both countries. “Both nations should freeze their nuclear wepaons development. The number of nuclear weapons should decrease, not increase,” he added.

India and Pakistan have gone to war on three occasions, two of them over the disputed territory of Kashmir. On Thursday, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif offered a “non aggresssion pact” to India on the basis of “a just settlement” of the Kashmir dispute which was last discussed in the Security Council nearly 49 years ago.

Since then both countries have shown reluctance to “internationalise” the Kashmir dispute by third party mediation.