Lawmakers, experts urge UN, US to help resolve Kashmir dispute

WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (APP): India’s brutal repression of Kashmiris’ peaceful political dissent in the occupied territory belies its democratic claims and the United Nations and the United States must help resolve the longstanding Kashmir dispute in a just manner, lawmakers and South Asian experts said at a seminar. Entitled ‘Kashmir Dispute: Setting a Stage for a Settlement’, the seminar was attended by Congressman Dan Burton, Republican from Indiana; Lord Nazir Ahmed, Member, British House of Lords; Ambassador Yusuf Buch, former Senior Advisor to the United Nations Secretary General; Mr.  Harsh Mander, Country Director, Action Aid, India; Dr. Ghulam N. Mir, President, world Kashmir Freedom Movement and Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director Kashmiri American Council. Congressman Burton, in his address, referred to the 1949 U.N.  cease-fire agreement, and U.N. Resolution of April 21, 1948, August 13, 1948, January 5, 1949 on Kashmir dispute and said all these rejected India’s claim of accession of the region to India, declaring that Kashmir’s future would be determined by its citizens through a free and impartial plebiscite. India claims to be the world’s largest democracy, and like any other great democracy, its soldiers should be and must be held to a higher standard of conduct, he noted at the moot held in Columbus, Ohio. Yet, India’s insistence on resolving a political problem by force has dragged it down in to a campaign of essentially lawless state terrorism, Burton added.  The legislator regretted that the United Nations has not lived up to its responsibilities and urged the world body and the U.S. Administration to become involved in the Kashmir dispute so as to resolve it to the satisfaction of the people. Lord Nazir Ahmed said Kashmir is an international issue and the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir recognize Kashmiri peoples’ right to self-determination. He said that UN resolutions on Kashmir are the constitutional base for the solution of Kashmir, as Kashmiris will not accept the solution of lingering dispute without UN resolutions. He called for tripartite talks among India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership for an early and peaceful solution of Kashmir issue.  He said the British Labor Party always stressed for the settlement of the Kashmir issue through objective and meaningful talks and it was also the part of the party’s manifesto, he added. “What I really want to see (in the Occupied Kashmir) is reduction in Indian Army, I want to see release of political prisoners, I want to see some demilitarized zones.” In his remarks, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai said “certainly, terrorists cannot compose the entire populations of the major towns, villages and city of Indian-Occupied Kashmir. And more than one million people cannot be instigated and provoked by a remote control”. “The presence of over a million people at Martyr’s Cemetery on August 22, 2008 reflected the true nature of the peaceful Kashmiri resistance movement and not a movement of terrorism,” he added. Dr. Fai said if all the people of the Vale of Kashmir are the agents of ‘Azadi’, then that by itself removes the ground from India’s claim to the territory. Ambassador Yusuf Buch lamented that the “posture of admitting no wrong, which remains habitually Indian, is receiving much encouragement from the very world powers that loudly swear a commitment to human rights.” “This respectful protection provided to the occupation regime vin Kashmir by governments and media is a most depressing example of the double standards that are maintained in upholding the values which were enshrined in the United Nations Charter”. These values, though entirely secular, had enough resonance in them to turn them into a reliable counter-force against the irrational extremism which does not originate in religion.  However, they have now been robbed of their appeal, turned into mere tools of policy by the world powers, invoked in one situation and completely forgotten in another, even if closely comparable. “You cannot successfully fight a war against extremism while fertilizing the sense of injustice that is one of the roots of extremism. You cannot overcome the religious extremism if you keep supplying them proof that, for redressing injustice, peaceful secular processes are but a pretence or a trap,” Buch stated. In his speech, Dr. Ghulam N. Mir said that Indian armed forces have committed unprecedented atrocities on people of Jammu and Kashmir but failed to break the morale of the people. Dr. Mir noted that although the composite dialogue began four years ago, there has been little progress because of India’s intransigence. New Delhi is not sincere on this issue and aims at prolonging the negotiations. He called upon all civilized nations to stand by just cause of Kashmir.