Author:
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: June 21, 2002
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/jun/21un.htm
Mexico's United Nations mission
put off indefinitely on Thursday a planned private Security Council seminar
on the Kashmir crisis that had angered India and spurred a boycott by its
allies Russia and Mauritius.
A spokeswoman for Mexico said the
session had been delayed due to a scheduling conflict and would be rescheduled
in two weeks.
But a council envoy said Mexico
would have to work hard to get diplomats to attend. "There was a less than
enthusiastic response to it," said the envoy, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
The low-key and unpublicised seminar
that initially had been scheduled for Thursday afternoon was organised
by Mexico despite an informal agreement by council members earlier this
month to leave the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir to bilateral
diplomatic efforts outside the United Nations.
Indian Ambassador Vijay Kunhianandan
Nambiar complained the seminar should not take place and Russia and Mauritius,
which have close ties to New Delhi, quietly let it be known they would
not attend.
Indian diplomats 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.
Two of the scheduled speakers are
members of the Kashmir Study Group, a group headquartered in suburban Larchmont,
New York, that has issued a plan calling for an independent Kashmir.
Reuters
