A/44/PV.11 General Assembly

I shall call on the representative of Pakistan, who wishes to speak in exercise of the riqht of reply. (The President) May I remind men*>ecs that, in accordance with General Assembly decision 34/401, statements in exercise of the right of reply are limited to 10 minut~ for the first intervention and to five minutes for the second and should be made by delegations from their seats. Mr. UMER (Pak istan): My deleqation is conscious of the late hour and would not have impinqed on the time and pa tience of the Assembly had not a statement made this morning left it nO other choice. In that statem",nt the Kabul representative ',i1ce aqain rrade the oft-repeated allegations aqairtst Pakistan. These wild alleqations are nothinq but fabrications and distortions which bear no relationship to reality. They represent yet another attempt by a discredited regime to maliqn Pakistan and shift attention from its total failure to win acceptance from the people of Afghanistan. We categorically and totally reject these accusations. Pakistan is fully conscious of its responsibilities under the Geneva Agreements, which it continues to implement scrupulously and faithfully. The United Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan (UNOOMAP) has found no evidence \\batsoever that arms and ammunition are beinq transported to Afqhanistan from Pakistcn. Furthermore, no traininq cartl>s were found by UNOOMAP teams on Pakistan territory. Neither has any evidence been produced of violations of Afqhan territory or airspace. On the other hand, there have been numerous violations of Pakistan's terri tory. Since the sign iog of the Geneva Aqreements there have been 175 incidents of air v:tolations, 399 incidents of qround violations, Scud-missile attacks, and 265 incid~mts of sabotaqe resul tinq in the k iHinG .f 238 innocent civilians and injuries to 500 others. Evidence of these attacks is available in the debris of Afqha~ military aircraft and of the Scud mis~iles on our snil. (Hr. Umer, Pak is tan) The reqime in Kabul continues to terrorize its own people. Air bombardments of Afqhan villaqes have intensified. They have also been made the tarqets of over 700 Scud missiles. These deadly missiles are instruments of sheer terror. They have no military siqnificance in a guerilla situation. The charqe that Pakistani troops are fiqhting alonqside the Mujahidin is preposterous. The many foreiqn journalists who have vis ited the. battlefront have found no siqns of any Pak istani military presence. The brave Afqhan people who have successfully overcome foreign intervention for centuries do not need Pakistan's assistance for the final phase of their heroic strugqle for self-determination. Pakistan was also accused of preventinq the return of the refugees. Nothinq could be further from the truth. The more than 5 million refuqees are refusinq to return to Af1hanistan under a reqime which was instrumental in the deaths of 1.5 million Afqhans and the unprecedented destruction of their country's economic, social and cultural infrastructure. The intensification of the acts of terror by the Kabul reqime throuqh continued bombinq of and rocket attacks 00 defenceless towns and villaqes is indeed a strange inducement for the refuqees to return. In fact the exodus of refuqees to Pakistan has increased in the past few months. That has been verified by the Office of. the United Nations Hiqh Conunissioner for Refugees as well as other in ta-na tional orgcn iza tions work ing in the field. The Kabul representative also claimed that the people of Pakistan were tired of "the increasing domination of the Pakistani military" (A/44/PV.I0, p. 57). I remind him that a democratically elected Government has been functioninq in Pak istan since December 1988. (Mr .. Umer, Pakistan) The so-called peace proposals referred to by the Kabul representa tive th is morninq are self-serving inasmuch as their sole purpose is to prolong the life of the regime. These proposals have been ca teqoricallv rejected by the Afqhan Mu jahidin.. Interljational opinion cannot be manipulated through the sheer repetition of bankrupt and self-serving proposals presented under the qarb of reasonableness. The fundamental cause of the tragic continuation of the conflict in Afghanistan is the refusal of the reqime in Kabul to accept the reality of the situation. This reqime is not acceptable to any segment of the Afqhan nation except the coterie of the People's Democratic Party (POP) hard-liners. Peace and stability in Afqhanistan can be restored only if power is transferred from this reqime to a broad-based Government acceptable to the Afqhan people. Resolution 43/20, adopted by consensus by the General Assembly last year, calls for the establishment of such a Government. That is the exclus ive preroqa tive of the people of Afqhanistan. Pakistan has consistently supported the riqht of the Afqhan people to determine their own future free from outside intervention, interference, coercion or constraint of any kind whatsoever. Pakistan's commitment to that principle is unflinch inq and abiding. The meetinq rose at 8.20 p.m.