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Straw rejects Pakistan's suggestion on international observers along LoC

K J M Varma in Islamabad

Britain on Tuesday rejected Pakistan's suggestion to deploy international observers along the Line of Control to monitor India's charge of cross-border terrorism and asked Islamabad to strictly implement the United Nations resolution on terrorism.

"Kashmir is a bilateral dispute of long-standing and sadly, a cause of considerable bitterness between India and Pakistan," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Tuesday after talks with President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad.

However, this did not mean that the international community had no responsibility to secure a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir issue, he told reporters.

Straw declined to make a distinction between freedom fighters and terrorists as defined by Pakistan saying one country's freedom fighters were terrorists for the rest of the world.

That is how the Irish Republic Army (IRA) has tried to justify the violence to force a settlement in Northern Ireland, Straw said.

On Musharraf's claim that no infiltration was taking place into Kashmir, Straw said, "The test of assurances down the ages is how they work out on the ground."

"I think the Pakistani president is under no doubt about the expectations of the international community for clear action to be taken in addition to that which has already been taken to clamp down on cross-border terrorism," Straw said.

Describing his discussions with Musharraf as 'constructive and forthright', Straw, who leaves for India on Tuesday night, said he carried no specific message for the Indian leaders.

"I am not a messenger between India and Pakistan," he said adding his visit was primarily aimed at apprising himself of the situation and conveying the stand of the international community to the leadership of the two countries.

There are 'clear limits' to what the international community could do 'since decisions about war and peace rest with the parties to the dispute', he said.

PTI

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