Srinagar, Oct 8: Amid mounting international focus on Kashmir, a Untied Nations body has listed Jammu and Kashmir as a ‘separate country’ in one of its important reports on greenhouse emissions.
The development comes amid talks that the United Nations was willing to use its “good offices” in resolving the Kashmir issue, if both India and Pakistan sought the assistance of the world body.
The report titled “Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Dairy Sector: a lifecycle assessment” has listed Jammu and Kashmir as part of East Asia, along with Arunachal Pradesh, which has been spelt as “Arunashal.”
The 2010 report has been prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to assess the greenhouse gas emission from the dairy food chain. It has been published in collaboration with the International Dairy Foundation.
Interestingly, the Jammu and Kashmir has been spelt as “Jammu Kashmir” in the report, which is available on the FAO website www. fao.org. The other countries which have been listed in the East Asia section include Aksai Chin Arunashal Pradesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, China/India, Christmas Island, Dem People’s Rep of Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jammu Kashmir, Japan, Kuril Islands, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam.While the report hasn’t mentioned any more details with regard to the issue, a Delhi-based newspaper quoted the FAO Representative in India and Bhutan, Gavin Wall, as saying: “The country grouping that is carried in Annex 5 of the report titled Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Dairy Sector: A Life Cycle Assessment is based on FAO’s Global Administrative Unit Layers (GAUL). The GAUL aims at compiling and disseminating the most reliable spatial information on administrative units for all countries in the world; it complies with the UNSC international boundaries map. Because the GAUL is developed at global level, controversial boundaries cannot be ignored. The selected approach is to treat disputed areas as ‘independent entities not dependent from countries’. In this way, the GAUL preserves national integrity for all disputing countries. Areas are then classified from a purely geographic point of view.”
The FAO issue has surfaced at a time when there is a lot of talk around that the world community, particularly the United Nations and the United States, were focusing on the resolution of the vexed Kashmir dispute.
While the UN general secretary, Ban Ki-moon on October 7 expressed his willingness to intervene in the Kashmir issue if both India and Pakistan wised so, a news report last month asserted that the US president Barrack Obama would, during his upcoming November visit to New Delhi, ask India to resolve Kashmir if it wanted a ticket in the UN Security Council.
In August 2010, Google landed in a controversy after its maps depicted Kashmir as a disputed territory and some of its parts belonging to Pakistan. The internet giant however rectified the “error” after India said “it would give rise to integrity and sovereignty issues in the country.”
Interestingly, such assertions of Kashmir being a disputed territory have surfaced at various quarters, including some of the newspapers. An Afghanistan daily named The Times of Kabul also mentions Kashmir separately in the South Asian section.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 8 Oct 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 8 Oct 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 9 Oct 2010 00:00:00 IST