CTV News


MacKay rejects Pakistan's border mining plan

Updated Tue. Jan. 9 2007 11:08 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has told officials in Pakistan that Canada opposes the plans to mine parts of its border with Afghanistan.

MacKay is in Pakistan for talks on the situation in neighbouring Afghanistan and on the contentious issue about how to prevent Taliban and al-Qaeda militants from crossing the border.

MacKay spent Tuesday morning discussing the issue with his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Kasuri, and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and will later hold talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

MacKay told a news conference after the first round of talks that Canada opposes the plans to mine parts of the border, based on its obligations under the Ottawa Treaty that bans the laying of landmines.

He said he offered instead Canada's help in surveying the rugged border, such as aerial reconnaissance, training of border guards and a delivery of satellite telephones.

"We want to be co-operative and we want to be constructive in coming forward with solutions that we think are better alternatives,'' MacKay said.

Kasuri told reporters that Pakistan will "give consideration'' to the Canadian suggestions, but added that Pakistan will not backtrack on its "desire to control the border.''

Pakistan has been struggling to prevent cross-border activity by Taliban and al-Qaeda guerrillas, in an effort to stave off western criticism that it is not doing enough to stop the insurgency. It announced last week that it would plant mines and build barbed-wire fences at selected areas along the border.

Pakistan is not a signatory of the Ottawa Treaty.

MacKay said the plan to erect the fence could play a role in the solution.

Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad, told Canada AM Tuesday that MacKay is a welcome voice at the table for bringing peace to the region.

"I think that Minister MacKay's visit to Afghanistan and then to Pakistan today is very important, not only for security in Afghanistan but security around our border regions with Pakistan, which means security for the rest of the world -- because this is a very pivotal dangerous part of the world where many al-Qaeda and Taliban militants have escaped to."

Afghanistan also opposes the plan to fence and mine the border, saying it would not prevent the insurgency and would only hinder free travel by tribal groups who live on both sides of the frontier.

"We don't think that mining the border is the right approach," Samad said, citing as well the Ottawa Treaty.

"We hope to find solutions, practical solutions to this."

He added that he believes the solution lies in more diplomacy.

"We have to address this issue by talking and allowing the locals, the people on both sides to prevent militancy and extremism from taking hold. And the Pakistani government has a lot more to do. We all have a lot more to do.

"We need to cooperate sincerely and practically in order to achieve this. Otherwise, we'll all face in 2007 hardships."

Perhaps they could use command detonated mines considering that they are only going to be mining and fencing some portions of the border and should be monitoring it anyway. It's obvious to all involved that Pakistan is not pulling their weight when it comes to stopping the Taliban crossing the border.