Kashmir: a paradise turned into hell

Repression and state terrorism has turned Kashmir into a hell that would stretch Dante’s imagination. After suffering death and destruction for four decades from 1948 to 1988, valiant Kashmiris started armed struggle and at least 80000 Kashmiris have laid down their lives, and still they are determined to take their struggle to the logical conclusion. There are some parallelism between Kashmir, Palestine and Bosnia so far as genocide of the Muslims is concerned.

The Kashmir dispute, however, is different in a way that it was India that took the matter to the UN under Chapter VI of the UN Charter, which deals with Pacific Settlement of Disputes. The Security Council then passed the resolution on January 5, 1949 stating, “The question of the accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan would be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite.”

However, it was due to apathy of the international community that it did not persuade India to implement the UNSC resolution. Nevertheless, the issue is alive in the UN records, and unless it is resolved there cannot be a durable peace in the region.

It is heartening to note that the European parliament has recently debated on mass graves in Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) during the plenary session in Strasbourg, France. And passed the resolution which reads: “Hundreds of unidentified graves have been discovered since 2006 in Jammu and Kashmir and human rights violations committed by the armed forces of India continue in an atmosphere of impunity.” It called upon the Indian government to “urgently ensure independent and impartial investigations into all suspected sites of mass graves in Jammu and Kashmir and as an immediate first step to secure the grave sites in order to preserve the evidence.”

Hundreds of unnamed graves were discovered by a human rights group in Kashmir recently. Most of those buried in the graves are believed to be victims of fake encounters by the Indian armed forces. The resolution also urged India to ratify and implement the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance without reservations, and to grant access to Jammu and Kashmir for the UN Special Rapporteurs under the terms of reference of the UN Special Procedure. In another development, the Norwegian government termed the new discoveries of unidentified graves in IHK as alarming despite the fact that India was signatory to UN’s Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

In April 2008, Amnesty International had urged the Indian government to launch urgent investigation into the mass graves, which were thought to contain the remains of victims of human rights abuses in the context of the armed conflict that has raged in the region since 1989. Though actions of the European parliament, Amnesty International and other forums are commendable yet these fall short of requirements of the UNSC resolutions giving the right of self-determination to the Kashmiris.

Unfortunately, even Muslim countries that have been supporting Pakistan and insisting on implementation of UNSC resolutions on Kashmir have now started the litany that the Kashmir dispute be resolved through bilateral negotiations. It is true that according to the Tashkent Declaration after 1965 War and Simla Agreement after 1971 War, both India and Pakistan had agreed to resolve all disputes through bilateral dialogue. Although both countries had quite a few rounds of dialogue but to no avail. The problem is that the US and European countries have double standards. Take the case of East Timor, a resolution was passed and implemented within months. In 1991, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, once again the UNSC passed a resolution, which was implemented within weeks.

Since the beginning of the ongoing composite dialogue, Musharraf has stressed the need that India and Pakistan should show flexibility by coming beyond their stated positions, meeting half-way to resolve the issue of Kashmir and to find a common ground, which is also acceptable to the Kashmiris. He had suggested various options to resolve the Kashmir dispute but the Indian PM ruled out redrawing of the borders, which means that it would not show flexibility to resolve the issue. If India were not willing to budge an inch from its stated position, the entire peace process would be an exercise in futility.

Even after six decades, the people of Kashmir are losing hope. Whereas war is not an option between two nuclear states and composite dialogue might have facilitated people-to-people contact, Kashmiris see few benefits from the confidence building measures between India and Pakistan. To be clear, people-to-people contact, cultural exchanges and economic cooperation are not alternatives to the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

The Kashmiris are also watching with awe the Indian government’s efforts to bring about the demographic change by facilitating Hindus to settle down in large numbers in Jammu and Kashmir. They are getting restless and it is in this backdrop that nine people have been killed in fresh outbreaks of violence in IHK recently. A grenade attack by suspected militants in Srinagar left five dead and nine received injuries. Four others were killed in another related incident. The international community should, therefore, help resolve the Kashmir dispute to avert the impending disaster in case of a war between the two atomic powers.

The writer is a political analyst