Srinagar
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday expressed the hope that Pakistan and India would be able to engage in a “meaningful dialogue” to resolve their disputes, pointing out that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had clearly spoken about the deteriorating rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The UN has clearly done its job in that regard,” the UN chief said in response to a question from a Pakistani journalist at a crowded press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, his first in the new year.
He was referring to the damning June 14 UN report that calls for the establishment of a ‘commission of inquiry’ to investigate the grave human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.
The report accused forces of “unlawful killings by using brute force, sexual violence against female-folk, use of one of the most dangerous weapons pellet-firing shotguns against the civilian population.”
The report also emphasised that dialogue between India and Pakistan that “includes the people of Kashmir” the resolve the problem.
Guterres said that he has been offering his good offices in relation to the dialogue between the two countries that until now had “no condition of success.”
“I hope that the importance of both Pakistan and India is such in international affairs (that) I hope that the two countries will be able to engage in a meaningful dialogue,” he said.
