LONDON Jan 5: Lord Avebury has suggested appointment of a special UN envoy to help ease mounting tension between New Delhi and Islamabad.

“Mr Blair could suggest to President Musharraf and Atal Behari Vajpayee that the UN Secretary-General be asked to appoint a high-level special envoy, who would talk to the parties separately, with a view to identifying measures that would reduce tension,” Avebury said talking to The Guardian on Friday.

The UN envoy, he said, could “establish a continuous process of negotiation that would not be dependent on the readiness of the leaders to meet in person”.

Avebury said, as the British prime minister was prepared to visit India and Pakistan to urge restraint, “Blair should be seen as a friend of both the countries who is ready to help them find ways of solving the Kashmir problem”.

“As an immediate confidence-building measure, Mr Blair could ask the two leaders if they would agree that the reports of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan be made public, so that the world can see which side is responsible for initiating exchanges of artillery firing across the Line of Control (LoC), and what civilian casualties are being caused,” said Lord Avebury.

“It is 52 years since the group was formed, yet its reports over all those years have been confidential to the Secretary-General,” said Avebury.—APP