13011948  Text of the Speech made by Mr. Korbel. (Chairman of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan) in the Security Council Meeting No. 399 held on 13 January, 1949

 Text of the Speech made by Mr. Korbel. (Chairman of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan) in the Security Council Meeting No. 399 held on 13 January, 1949

May I be allowed to say on behalf of the Commission that it feels highly honoured to appear today before the Security Council to present its second interim report. The first interim report [/1100] was presented to the Council on 25 November 1948 and covered the period of the Commission's activities in the sub continent. The second interim report covers the Commission's work in Geneva, in Paris, and at Lake Success to the present date.

Members of the Security Council will remember that on 13 August last year, when in Karachi, the Commission passed a resolution consisting of three parts, which appears in its first interim report [S/1100] In part one it asked the Governments of India and Pakistan to stop fighting; in part two it proposed certain principles for a truce; and in part three it expressed in general terms its conviction that the future status of the State of Jammu and Kashmir should be decided by the free will of the people of that State.

The Government of India signified its acceptance of the Commission's resolution, and the Government of Pakistan attached to its acceptance certain conditions regarding mainly the question of conditions under which the plebiscite should be held in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

On the basis of this, the Commission, when in Paris, suggested that two representatives of the Governments of India and Pakistan should take part in conversations regarding the conditions and the basic principles which should govern the holding of the plebiscite. Both Governments responded to this suggestion affirmatively. Thus, the Commission held several informal conversations with the representatives of India and Pakistan, these conversations being held partly by the Commission as a body, and partly by individual members of the Commission.

These conversations led the Commission to formulate its final proposals, which were communicated to both Governments on 11 December. In the Commission's communication. It was stated that the Commission hoped that those proposals would be accepted by both Governments in their entirety.

The main points of those proposals were: that the accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir would be decided by way of a free and impartial plebiscite that the Secretary-General of the United Nation, would nominate, in agreement with the Commission, a plebiscite administrator who would be a person of high international standing and who would derive from the Government of Jammu and Kashmir the powers which he considered necessary to organise and conduct a free and impartial plebiscite. The Commission. further proposed that all human and political rights should be re-established and guaranteed; that the return of refugees should be organised by two commissions to be nominated by the Governments of India and Pakistan respectively; that the question of the final disposal of the armed forces which are in the State of Jammu and Kashmir should be solved by the plebiscite administrator and the Commission in consultation with both Governments and the competent authorities; finally that the plebiscite administrator should report the result of the plebiscite to the Commissions and to the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, and that the Commission should inform the Security Council whether the plebiscite had been free and impartial.

The Commission put these proposals before the two Governments and decided to send one of its members to the sub-continent so that he might place his services at the disposal of both Governments, if any clarification or interpretation of the Commission's proposals were needed.

The representative of Colombia, Minister Lozano Agudelo, accompanied by his alternate, Mr. Samper Gomez, and the personal representative of the Secretary-General, paid a short visit to both capitals and held several conversations with officials of the Governments of Pakistan and India. In view of the clarifications which Minister Lozano offered to both Governments, I am highly privileged to announce that both Governments have accepted the Commission's proposals and, on the basis of these, have declared the cessation of hostilities in the territory of the State of Jammu and Kashmir as from 1 January 1949.

The Commission reconvened on 5 January at Lake Success, where the report of Minister Lozano Agudelo was considered and approved, where the second interim report to the Security Council was elaborated and approved, and where a resolution was adopted embodying the proposals accepted by both Governments. The Commission then resolved to return to the sub-continent in the immediate future.

If the Commission has succeeded in the first stage of its work, it is only thanks to the Governments of India and Pakistan. The Commission has been working on these proposals in Paris in close contact with the representatives of both Governments, who have offered the Commission all possible help and assistance; and thus they have given proof of their desire to solve the problem of Kashmir in a peaceful way.

The Commission will return in a few days to the sub continent in order to work in close co-operation with the two Governments on the implementation of part I and part II of its resolution of 13 August, and, at a later stage, it will elaborate the details of the Commission's proposals. The Commission sincerely believes that on returning to Lake Success it will be able to report to the Security Council that it has carried to a happy conclusion the honourable mission. which has been bestowed upon it.

The President: The Security Council has just heard the statement of the Chairman of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan. As President of the Council, I should like to take this opportunity to express on behalf of the Council our sincere satisfaction with the report which we have now received. All members of this Council, and, indeed, all Members of the United Nations, were heartened to learn from the joint communique issued by the Governments of India and Pakistan on 1 January that they had accepted the proposals which had been advanced to them. by our Commission, and that arrangements for a cease-fire had been made to come into effect at one minute before midnight on 1 January. This action on the part of India and Pakistan. represents a most important and encouraging event in the history of the United Nations.

The situation in Kashmir, which has been before this Council for over a year and which has been a source of grave anxiety, now seems to be on the way towards an acceptable solution. The ending of this controversy will have a profound result, not only for the good relations between India and Pakistan, but its effect will extend to peoples far beyond those territories, who will be inspired by the good example which has been set and encouraged by the fact that this very difficult and grave controversy has yielded to patience and persistent effort by the parties through the medium of an agency created by the United Nations.

In expressing, therefore, our appreciation and gratification to the two Governments whose earnest efforts for an agreement have now reached the satisfactory stage which has been reported to us today, I should also like to express the appreciation of the Council to the Commission for India and Pakistan, whose members we are privileged to have at our table today. They are discharging with every credit the exacting task with which they have been entrusted. I believe that the members of this Council would like to take advantage of this opportunity to hear from the representatives of India and Pakistan.