UNMOGIP irrelevant, Government right to shed historical baggage
The Government of India last week asked United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to vacate the office in New Delhi. The Government said that the Mission has “outlived its relevance”. The UN observer mission monitors the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan. However, the Government maintains that the move will not affect the situation on Kashmir issue.
The Ministry of External Affairs on July 9, 2014 had told the UNMOGIP to vacate its Government bungalow to “rationalise” the presence of the group. The reports also suggest that Government of India is not keen to engage a UN Mission in New Delhi. The UNMOGIP had been allotted a Government bungalow on the Purana Qila Road in New Delhi 40 years ago, free of charge. According to a report published in Daily Bhaskar, the Central Government has conveyed that the UNMOGIP’s role has been overtaken by the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the Line of Control. New Delhi is of the view that the UNMOGIP has “no relevance or role to play whatsoever”.
The Mission was established under a UN Security Council Resolution meant to supervise the ceasefire line established under the Karachi Agreement of July 1949.
The UN Resolution 47 (1948) also gave a greater scope to the membership of the UNCIP and its role to observe ceasefire. India and Pakistan signed Karachi Agreement in March 1951 and established a ceasefire line (LoC) to be supervised by observers. After the termination of UNCIP, the Security Council passed another resolution 91(1951) and established United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to observe and report violations of ceasefire.
The Centre’s decision is being seen as a move to convey India’s desire to not engage with the UN Mission in Delhi. According to sources who are familiar with the arrangement between South Block and UNMOGIP, the bungalow was allotted to the Mission as part of a gentleman’s agreement between Indian officials and the UN mission over 40 years ago. It was meant to be a short-term arrangement, and the UNMOGIP officials were supposed to move to a private hired accommodation. But that never happened.
IBNLive quotes Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut saying that India did not need any external force to settle its Kashmir issue. “We welcome the Government action. It is a new Government with a new thinking. We do not need anyone to interfere in the Kashmir dispute,” he said.
After the India-Pakistan War of 1971, the two countries signed the Simla Agreement in 1972 to define the Line of Control in Kashmir. India and Pakistan disagree on UNMOGIP’s mandate in Kashmir because India argued that the mandate of UNMOGIP has lapsed after Simla Agreement because it was specifically established to observe ceasefire according to the Karachi Agreement.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said, “Asking the UN observers to move out of a building or payment of rent is inconsequential in the context of the status of Jammu & Kashmir. There is a reason why UNMOGIP is present in the first place. Asking them to move out of the building does not abolish the mandate which was given by the UN Security Council in 1951 under Resolution 91, the Daily Bhaskar said.
However, Dawn reports that no reasons were given for vacating the office. Major Nicolas Diaz, who is in charge of the Delhi office is quoted as saying. He said the observer group would continue to operate in line with the UN mandate and that it was looking at alternative accommodation.
The Times of India quotes former permanent representative of India to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri as saying, “We have at best tolerated them because this is one of those byproducts of history.
“This was an issue of rationalising. I don’t know who had given them this largesse of free accommodation. They were not even paying normal rent for it, let alone market rent,” he said.
“We have said that as far as we are concerned, the UNMOGIP has outlived its relevance. This is a consistent stance that we have articulated on several occasions,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said.
As of May, UNMOGIP has 40 military observers, 23 international civilian personnel and 45 local civilian staff. The observer group is financed by the UN regular budget and appropriations for biennium 2014-2015 are $19.64 million.
The UN Security Council resolutions recognise Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory until the will of the people of Jammu & Kashmir is determined through a plebiscite under the United Nations auspices. Meanwhile, India has always maintained that Kashmir is an integral part of India.
Relations between India and Pakistan were frozen after Mumbai terror in 2008 in which Pakistani terrorists had killed 166 people. Since then ties have thawed which helped trade and people-to-people links, but the Kashmir dispute is far from resolution.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his election campaign had taken a tough stand on Pakistan’s role in sponsoring terror attacks in India. However, he has softened his stand and invited Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to India for his swearing-in ceremony.
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