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Deadlock on Sir Creek continues

Tara Shankar Sahay and Suhasini Haider in New Delhi

The talks between India and Pakistan on the demarcation of the boundary around the Sir Creek also ended without agreement today. The only thing the two sides agreed on was to resume the dialogue in the next round.

With this, three days of talks between the two neighbours on various issues have ended without any headway having been made in any of them.

Sir Creek, a small strip of water along the Rann of Kutch (in India) and Sind (in Pakistan), is at the centre of a 22-year-old dispute between the two countries.

Way back in 1914, the then government of Sind and the Rao Maharao of Kutch had agreed to a boundary running through the middle of the creek as the border between the two states.

But an earlier map, also agreed to by Sind and Kutch, had shown the eastern bank of the creek (or the current Indian side) as the boundary, which would mean that Pakistan gets the whole of the creek.

Pakistan accused India of reversing its own earlier stand in which it had agreed to that map. But India argued that the earlier map had simply "notional" or "symbolic" demarcation, which was never meant to be the actual border.

Lt Gen A K Ahuja, surveyor-general of India, who led the Indian side, pointed out that the allocation and delimitation of the mid-channel boundary were done in 1914 and the demarcation and administration was completed in 1925. Since then, the boundary in Sir Creek has been depicted in mid-channel by a proper boundary symbol.

The Indian delegation also underscored that there was no need to erect pillars in the middle of the creek, since it was a natural, fluid boundary.

Official sources said today's talks included references to the British convention of 1909, which states that for all navigable streams of water, boundaries must be calculated along the mid-channel of that stream.

According to the Pakistanis, Sir Creek is a non-navigable channel, and no commerce is carried out in it. But India cites fishing activity in the creek as evidence of its navigability.

"We are standing still, not really going forward in any of our discussions," Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Tariq Altaf said.

Altaf insisted that though the creek itself is not of much use to either side, this is "a matter of principle. If we agree to what we see as the Indian side's unreasonable demand, we will have to compromise on all our border disputes".

Lt Gen Ahuja said the Pakistani attitude reflected a desire to seek a resolution excluding internationally accepted cartographic procedures as well as historic developments.

Pakistani sources said they had proposed that both sides should go for arbitration on the matter, as there doesn't seem to be much chance of the two countries resolving the issue by themselves.

But external affairs ministry spokesman Vivek Katju told reporters that India rejected the suggestion outright. "We are committed to bilateral discussions for this matter as for any matter between us, and there is no place for a third party in our discussions, a principle which was agreed to in the Simla Agreement of 1972," he said.

In a joint statement on the subject, both sides agreed to continue discussions on the maritime boundaries around Sir Creek in the next round of discussions.

Five rounds of talks have already been held on the issue since 1979. The last was in November 1992.

There is some urgency in reaching a settlement because of a United Nations deadline set for 2004 for submitting and demarcating all maritime boundaries. This is particularly important for exploration for oil and natural gas, thought to be abundant in the area around the Rann of Kutch.

With today's discussions also ending in a stalemate, there seems to be little hope in both camps for the current round of talks.

Tomorrow, delegations led by Indian Commerce Secretary P P Prabhu and his Pakistani counterpart, Mian Iqbal Farid, will discuss trade and co-operation in power, railways, and communications, and also talk about Pakistan according 'most-favoured nation' status to India.

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