Early Times Report
Srinagar, Aug 3: Sending shock waves down the spine of the separatists in Kashmir, the United Nations, has finally declared that it has no mandate over Kashmir and that the situation and incidents in Kashmir are India's internal matter.
Such a statement from the United Nations has come at the time when the separatists have started intensifying their pitch over the rhetoric of 'implementing the UN resolutions in Kashmir' or what they term publically the 'plebiscite'.
The clarification was issued by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday, a day after the UN chief's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters that the the UN will continue to monitor the situation in Kashmir, including through "our monitoring group" UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).
Dujarric said regarding the situation in Kashmir, "I just wanted to clarify something, which is that UNMOGIP, the UN observer presence there, its mandate is to report on the ceasefire between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control. The UN Mission there does not have a mandate there beyond the Line of Control."
When asked why he was making the clarification, Dujarric said, "because I think it needed to be said".
Pertinently, the UN resolutions have been the central theme of the Pakistan and separatists in Kashmir, with the statements, public rallies and official meets, emphasising over the need and urgency of implementing the UN resolutions which is most commonly known in Kashmir as plebiscite.
Now, when the UN has closed its doors and clarified that it has nothing to do with the Kashmir situation and that the crisis erupting in this northern state are India's internal matter, the separatists in Kashmir have been caught between the devil and the deep sea. While they (Kashmiri separatists) find themselves in a fix over how to tackle with the situation, their worry about being relevant too has come under the cloud.
"Earlier, they used to ask people to lay down their lives for the plebiscite. Now when the UN has said it again in clear terms that it wouldn't ever interfere in Kashmir, what would be the next agenda of the separatists," asked a netizen on social media.
Sources within the separatists divulge that the uncertainty and chaos, after the UN statement, has risen and there isn't much to deliberate upon now. "This continues cycle of strikes, protests and rallies are called by the separatists in the name of UN resolutions, when they are nowhere, what more would they sell," sources said.
Pertinently, according to the Security Council mandate given in resolution 307 of 1971, UNMOGIP observes and reports on ceasefire violations along and across the Line of Control and the working boundary between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as reports developments that could lead to ceasefire violations.
India has maintained that UNMOGIP has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the Line of Control (LoC). India has always stated that it has "no role to play whatsoever".
According to the reports, as of March 31 this year, UNMOGIP has 44 military observers, 25 international civilian personnel and 47 local civilian staff. |
