Indian Ocean Committee establishes working group on issues.

• Position: Establishment of a 'peace zone'

Indian Ocean Committee establishes working group on issues

The Ad Hoc Committee on Indian Ocean, at its third and final scheduled session for 1985 (1-12 July), decided by consensus to establish an open-ended working group to "identify, expand and facilitate agreement on substantive issues relating to the establishment of a zone of peace", to assist the Committee in preparing the draft final document of the United Nations Conference on the Indian Ocean.

In 1979, the General Assembly decided to hold an international conference on the Indian Ocean in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to implement the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace, adopted in 1971. The declaration designated the Indian Ocean, "within the limits to be determined, together with the air space above and the ocean floor subjacent thereto", a zone of peace " for all time".

The Conference, originally scheduled for 1981, was subsequently postponed and is now scheduled for 1986.

During its two-week session at United Nations Headquarters, the 48-member Committee continued its efforts to prepare for the Conference and took steps towards drafting its report to the Assembly (A/AC.159/L.67/Rev.1). It deciced not to act, however, on a draft resolution (A/AC.159/L.68), submitted by Sri Lanka on behalf of the non-aligned Committee members, to be the third part of its report.

By that draft, the Assembly would affirm that the creation of a peace zone in the Indian Ocean required the active participation and full co-operation of the littoral and hinterland States, permanent Security Council members and major maritime users, and would emphasize the "full and active participation" by those parties was essential for the success of the Colombo Conference, deemed a necessary step for implementing the 1971 Declaration.

In addition, the Assembly would ask the Ad Hoc Committee, "bearing in mind the urgency arising on account of the political and security situation in the region", to complete participation for the Conference so it could be convened in the first half of 1986.

The draft resolution was referred to an informal, open-ended group of "Friends of the Chairman", headed by Committee Chairman Nissanka Wijewardane (Sri Lanka). It was hoped that once the group agreed on a text, the Committee, subject to the Assembly's approval, could met for one or two days to complete its report to the Assembly. (The first two parts were approved on 12 July.)

In its report, the Committee observed that one...