UN SECURITY COUNCIL STILL KEEN ON KASHMIR RESOLUTION

LONDON, 23 October 1997

In a letter received by the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF - UK/Europe), the newly appointed UN under-secretary general for political affairs, Mr Kieran Prendergast has said that the United Nations' Security Council has not given up on the issue of Kashmir despite a fifty year time gap and still seeks to determine the political status of Jammu-Kashmir.

In his letter to the JKLF UK/Europe secretary general Azmat A Khan, Mr Prendergast has categorically stated that "from the UN perspective, the status of Jammu & Kashmir has not been determined and the Security Council is still siezed of the matter". He was responding to the JKLF concerns as to why the issue of Kashmir was not included in the secretary general's annual report this year and why the security council had failed to deal with the matter effectively over the last fifty years.

Explaining the reasons as to why any reference to 'India-Pakistan question' in the Secretary generals annual report to the General Assembly did not include the question of right of self-determination for Kashmir, the UN letter stated that "the length of the report was drastically reduced in length in accordance with the 1993 format, which was not to have an exhaustive compilation of all issues on the UN agenda". This clearly implied that the UN resolutions on Kashmir were still part of the UN agenda.

Mr Prendergast, expressing concern on behalf of the UN secretary general Annan Kofi at the lack of progress on the issue (KASHMIR) stated that the "secretary general continues to follow the Kashmir issue carefully and with concern". He added that the UN chief had welcomed the recent talks between the officials of India and Pakistan and remains ready to help search for a solution. ENDS