Nobel Peace Laureate Jose Ramos-Horta urged for peace in J&K

Nobel Peace Laureate Jose Ramos-Horta strongly urged for peace in Jammu and Kashmir. He made this appeal on 11 December 2016 in New Delhi on the sidelines of a child slavery abolition programme of a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

Observations of Ramos-Horta on Jammu and Kashmir peace process
• Dialogue is the only viable solution to resolve the decades-long conflict between India and Pakistan.
• An impartial military is necessary to achieve tension-free atmosphere in the region.
• Towards this end, the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) will play a key role.
• The Government should focus on priority issues in the region and gradually move towards long-pending issues.
• An Early solution to the J&K problem is of utmost importance for the South Asia region because its non-resolution may lead to terrorism and extremism.
• As the Globalisation process makes the borders irrelevant, peaceful resolution of the dispute is necessary for regional development.

About Jose Ramos-Horta
• Jose Ramos-Horta is the UN Special Representative and Head of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) since January 2013.
• He won the Nobel peace prize in 1996 for his role in resolving the violence in East Timor.
• He shared the honour with Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, who is an East Timorese Roman Catholic bishop.
• Ramos-Horta is the second president of the Democratic Republic of East Timor.
• He succeeded Xana Gusmao for a period of 5 years between 2007 and 2012.
• Prior to this elevation, he was the Prime Minister of the country for about one year.
• He founded the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN).
• FRETILIN played a key role in the resistance movement for over two decades.
• Ramos-Horta is better known across the world for his role as the exiled spokesperson for the country’s independence movement.
• He resigned from the FRETILIN in 1998 and became an independent politician.