Advani moots foreign monitors for Pak terror groups
[ WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2002 2:19:27 PM ]

NEW DELHI: Home Minister L K Advani has mooted the idea of foreign countries monitoring the "infrastructure of terror" inside Pakistan and said the international community could also monitor the border only on their side.

"I have no objections to foreign countries monitoring (the border) on the Pakistani side .... I (also) have no objection to foreign agencies and countries examining the infrastructure of terror in Pakistan or Pak-occupied Kashmir," Advani told British daily Independent in an interview.

Categorically stating that any monitoring would only be "permitted on the Pakistani side", he said, "there is no infiltration from our side. So that's the side that has to be watched". Reiterating India's long-standing objection to the United Nations Military Observer Group monitoring the Line of Control (LoC) for over five decades now, Advani said the force "can't do it, it's not practical. It is a small agency. That is the practical objection".

He said the "fundamental objection" to UN monitoring was that there was "a strong suspicion that foreign powers would like to use their influence to get control of the whole situation.