While bus and cricket diplomacy is being played out with unbridled passion across borders, a dispassionate and more realistic discourse on human rights violations in Kashmir should form part of the new-found bon homie between India and Pakistan. There is a reason why such an assessment is important. Between the hugs and kisses, booming trade and exchange visits, Pakistani guests in India have used every opportunity to air their perceived notions of human rights violations in Kashmir on this side of the border.
Not one Indian visiting Pakistan has raised the issue of human rights violations in Waziristan, Balochistan, Sindh, Northern Areas and in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. This issue will be played out to a full gallery when President Pervez Musharraf visits India over the weekend to play a game more devious than cricket. Hence, this is an attempt to put the picture in perspective about human rights violations in the region based on testimonies accessed from the on-going 61st Session of the United Nations Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (March 14-April 22).
Mr Mumtaz Khan, representing the European Union of Public Relations, set the debate on human rights in the context of militancy. "Under no circumstances," he said, "should the right to freedom be allowed to be misused to promote political and religious violence. The use or threat of violence cannot be used to suppress those who refuse to subscribe the militant and extremist ideology, under any pretext." He said such practices were pervasive and common in Jammu and Kashmir because of its disputed political status. "The violence in the Indian administered Kashmir, particularly against those who do not subscribe the political school of opinion of proxy militants are gunned down every day, and since local bodies elections were held in the Indian administered Kashmir more than six elected councillors were gunned down along with dozens of common people to punish them for taking part in the democratic process. These killings and violence is apparently attributed by these proxy militant groups with freedom but ultimate end is to force people to subscribe their extremist communal political agenda not to empower common Kashmiri."
On the situation in Kashmir occupied by Pakistan, Mr Khan states, "the two disputed regions under Pakistan administration known as Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas have been ignored by the international community despite the fact that widespread denial of human rights and fundamental freedom have been documented by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). In a recent report titled The State of Human Rights in Azad Kashmir, the Commission pointed out that fundamental rights of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir residents "are being violated at different levels and its autonomy is threatened by the contentious surveillance of intelligence agencies and intervention of Pakistan government". The report said that key positions were held by Pakistan bureaucrats with the veto power resting with the Corps Commander stationed at Murree. "The strong presence of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence in J&K perpetuates an atmosphere of fear among the local people in the border areas. No court appears to have jurisdiction over the people arrested by the agencies."
Referring to Gilgit-Baltistan, Mr Khan's testimony states, "Despite persistent pressure and even a ruling by its own Supreme Court, Pakistan continues to deny people of this region basic rights and fundamental freedoms." In a recent report, the Freedom House revealed that "law enforcement agencies freely use torture on the political activists who have been detained and imprisoned. Gilgit-Baltistan is directly administered by the Pakistan government and have no constitution guaranteeing them fundamental rights, democratic representation." Recent killings of 17 civilians including the leader of majority Shia community Agha Zia U-din highlight Pakistan Government's attempts to communalise the region. Agha Zia U-din was strongly opposed to the imposition of Wahabi syllabus in Gilgit-Baltistan schools. A large section of the community believes that Agha's murder was "facilitated" by the state.
The Belgian Association for Solidarity with Jammu & Kashmir, in its statement to the UN Commission, explained how terrorists and religious extremists were violating the social, cultural and economic rights of the people of Kashmir. "What could be considered as a normal striving for more autonomy or even for independence of the Kashmiris is fuelled by foreign mercenaries and turned into a jihad. Hundreds and thousands of Pandits, being an important Hindu minority having their economic, social and cultural roots in the Kashmir valley, had to flee because they were the targets of religious cleansing. They are still living as refugees under inhuman conditions in camps." The association said the terrorist groups "having the blessings and the support of some corners from across the border" are inimical to the economic, social and cultural rights of the Kashmiris and to the resolution of the Kashmir issue.
Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, Chairman, United Kashmir People's National Party, and Secretary General, International Kashmir Alliance, said "the all pervasive and far more serious and continuing violations of human rights in POK, comprising the so-called Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, are less known due to the veil of secrecy thrown over these areas by the Pak military-intelligence establishment under the pretext of security. This military-intelligence establishment has ruled Pakistan for most of its existence. It has ruined civil institutions and prevented the emergence of democracy in the country, so much so that Pakistan is beginning to be referred to as a failed state."
Quoting the July 2004 report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Sardar Kashmiri said, "fundamental rights such as freedom of movement, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association are often fringed. There is limited tolerance of divergent views. There are seven or eight political parties in Azad Kashmir but the State's Constitution and election laws debar those who do not subscribe to the so-called accession of Azad Kashmir to Pakistan, from participating in election. Handpicked nominees of the military regime in Islamabad are thrust upon the people as the head of the government, disregarding people's wishes."
Referring to a statement by Pakistan's Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights Mohammad Wasi Zafar, that people of Indian Kashmir should be given their right to self-determination, Sardar Kashmiri asked the commission whether the minister's plea for self-determination extended to his part of Kashmir as well. "It is clear that Pakistan's claims of championing the cause of self-determination for the people of Kashmir are nothing but hollow and self-serving propaganda slogans. These claims will have no meaning as long as Pakistan continues to deprive the people of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan of the opportunity to freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development which is the essence of self-determination."
So, when the General comes calling, and watches cricket for the cameras, someone should have the courage to present him with a set of documents which I have referred to on Kashmir from the UN Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. The file should, of course, contain a detailed map of Kashmir as it straddles the LoC. Certainly we must talk Kashmir, but first define what is Kashmir. That would be the first step towards a real solution.
The author is Senior Fellow, South Asia Programme and Director, Information Services, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.
Courtesy: The Pioneer, New Delhi, April 13, 2005. * Views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Observer Research Foundation.
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