Facts, Figures, Human Rights Violations
Background. Hr Violations International Law Govt Violations Summary Recmndations
Battered Bodies Shattered Souls. Indian Lie
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The State of Jammu & Kashmir
The atrocities, (torture, confinement, arson, loot, custodial deaths, inhuman & degrading treatment, killings) committed by Indian forces has not quelled the general uprising in favour of " AZADI" (Independence from Indian occupation).
The Government of India has responded to this situation in three ways:1. Firstly India isolated the occupied State of Jammu & Kashmir from the rest of the world by denying access to international human rights monitoring groups.
2. This isolation has been used to perpetrate systematic barbaric atrocities against the people of Kashmir in the form of collective punishment, mass killing, mass confinement, inhuman and degrading treatment, torture, enforced starvation, molestation, arson, loot and custodial killings.
3. Thirdly the Government of India has simultaneously resorted to distort the facts and malign the freedom movement of Kashmir. The Indian controlled media has helped to camouflage the brutal actions with lies, fabrications, excuses, blames, abuses, myths and tactful propaganda.
Ironically, Government of India calls its savage terrifying occupation forces as "Security" forces giving a false impression as if the forces are meant for security, whereas the huge army and paramilitary forces are used to coerce people into submission and silence. In the same manner, the acts of arbitrary arrest and detention are dubbed as "preventive detention". Likewise, community raids and army operations accompanied with acute forms of harassment and inhuman treatment, molestation, and degradation are described as "house to house searches". Similarly systematic killings of civilians by way of summary execution and custodial deaths due to torture are portrayed as "encounter", in which innocent persons including political opponents are taken into custody, tortured and then murdered. The death generally occurs as a result of brutality, whereupon the Government issues press releases, attributing the loss due to "encounter". In such cases, the police claims as having fired in "self-defence". Where the military and para-military forces open fire against unarmed masses, the killings are advertised as deaths in "cross firing".
In the same manner, the freedom movement of Jammu and Kashmir is being labelled as "secessionist" or "separatist" movement and the freedom fighters as "terrorists", whereas the Jammu and Kashmir state is not a part of India but an internationally disputed territory for which United Nations has passed numerous resolutions to the effect that the "the final disposition of the State of Jammu & Kashmir will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed in the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. Accordingly the people of Jammu and Kashmir are within their rights to demand their promised right of self-determination. Thus, this is the way the human rights violation is formally sanctioned and mercilessly perpetrated.
The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 outrightly killed more than 1,00,000 people. They inflicted severe burns, blast injuries and radiation effects on another 125000. Still more deaths and injuries occurred in later years - continuing in till 1980s- were attributed to radiation exposure from the two bombs.
India also made a test of its nuclear Bomb in 1974. But India is the first country in the world which dubbed its nuclear Explosion Test as "Peaceful" Nuclear Explosion Test. It refuses to sign any international agreement to ban nuclear proleferation. The spring 1998 election in India have thrown up the winners of seats who demand manufacture of Nuclear arsenal. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were small by comparison with the destructive power of the "peaceful" bomb exploded by India, the so-called secular second largest democracy.
Instead of trying to settle the Kashmir issue with prudence and justice, the government of India is misleading the world opinion on one hand and using brute force of all dimensions on the other. Some details of the atrocities and brutalization of human rights perpetrated by Indian forces have been duly recognized, registered and publicized by the International Human Rights Organizations like the Asia Watch, the Amnesty International, the ICHR. The violations have been so massive that even Human Rights organizations based in India have themselves equally identified and condemned these atrocities.
The prevalent situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir, as depicted by India is:- 1. The dispute over Kashmir is a territorial dispute. 2. The movement is a terrorist movement. 3. The movement is a fundamentalist movement. 4. The movement is a secessionist movement. 5. The movement is all sponsored and supported by Pakistan. 6. With the passage of time, the UN resolutions on Kashmir have become ineffective. 7. India would disintegrate if Kashmir issue was resolved in accordance with UN resolutions.
8. Kashmiris have acceded to India and are participating in State Legislative Assembly Elections.
The Indian misleading phrases, slogans and claims have been refuted by Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry, the Prime Minister of the State of Azad Jammu & Kashmir so that people may come to the right conclusion about the Kashmir issue. Q- 1: The dispute over Kashmir is a territorial dispute.
Ans:- Kashmir is not a territorial dispute. It involves the inalienable right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination. This fact is recognized by the UN Security Council resolutions.
The principles embodied in the UN Security Council resolutions 47 (1948) of 21 April 1948, 51 (1948) of 3 June, 1948, 80 (1950) of 14 March 1950 and 91 (1951) of 30 March 1951, and the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan resolutions of 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949 expressly state that the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations.
On October 31, 1947, just four days after forcible occupation, the Prime Minister
of India sent a telegram to the Prime Minister of Pakistan:
(Jawahar Lal Nehru, Telegram No. 25, October 31, 1947).
(Jawahar Lal Nehru, Statement, New Delhi: All India Radio, November 3, 1947). Before the UN Security Council, speaking through its
representative, India repeated its aforementioned stand saying:
(Gopalaswami Ayyanger, "United Nations Security Council Official Records", 227th Meeting, January 15, 1948). Again on February 23, 1948, Indian representative declared before the Security
Council:
(Gopalaswami Ayyanger, "UN Security Official Records", 239th Meeting).
Q- 2: The movement is terrorist movement. Ans.: The Kashmiri struggle for self-determination is an indigenous movement and is a manifestation of the Kashmiris desire to break free from the yoke of Indian rule. India is trying its best to project to the international community that the Kashmiri freedom fighters are terrorists. But in reality it is India itself which is indulging in the worst possible form of state terrorism through the imposition of draconian laws and the unbridled use of brute force.
Why does India not allow independent verification. No red crescent, No red cross, No visitors - like independent News agencies etc.
Some details of atrocities and systematic human rights violations have been duly registered, recognized and publicized by various Human Rights Monitoring groups including Asia Watch, Amnesty International, ICHR, etc.
According to Human Rights watch: Violations of human rights and humanitarian law by regular security forces - the army, the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) - have also continued. These violations include deliberate killing of detainees in the custody of the security forces in Kashmir and reprisal killings of civilians.... Indian Security personnel in Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) have also been responsible for rape as a counter-insurgency tactics. In mid- 1992, the Indian government launched a "catch and kill" policy, to execute captured Kashmiri freedom fighters. That policy together with the January 1993 massacre of at least forty civilians by BSF troops in Sopore, focused international attention on human rights violations in Kashmir.
(Human Rights Watch/Asia "Indias Secret army in Kashmir, New Patterns of Abuse Emerge in the Conflict," Washington: May, 1996). Q- 3: It is a fundamentalist
movement.
The indigenous movement in Kashmir, where the Kashmiris are asking for settlement of their fate as per commitment of India and Pakistan according to UN resolutions; how can that movement be termed as fundamentalist movement? Is strict following of the basic teachings of any religion a crime? The west at large somehow is prejudiced against the word "Islam", which means "Peace".
In Kashmir, the Kashmiri people, irrespective of their religion are demanding the right of self-determination. This inherent right of the people of Kashmir is recognised by the international community since it is based on the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
Q- 4: It is a secessionist movement.
Q- 5: The movement is all sponsored and supported by Pakistan. Ans:- Such ideas are being spread by India in its campaign to mislead international public opinion and to divert attention from the indigenous Kashmir freedom struggle. Pakistan continues to support the Kashmiris politically, morally and diplomatically. Indian claims of material assistance being given by Pakistan to the Kashmiris are baseless. If India truly believed in this case, it should accept proposals to station UN or neutral observers on both sides of the Line of Control in Kashmir to verify their claim. If Indians had allowed independent eye witnesses to watch the struggle the factual position would have favoured them, if Pakistan was supporting it.
Q- 6: With passage of time, the UN resolutions on Kashmir have become ineffective.
Ans:- UN resolutions on Kashmir continue to be as valid today as at the time on which they were passed. The need to implement these resolutions has become even greater today as is evidenced by the realities on the ground. For the last eight years the Kashmiris have been struggling for their right to self-determination and have borne the burnt of Indias atrocities. Claims to sovereignty over an illegally occupied territory are null and void under international law.
That the statute of limitations is not applicable to the Kashmir dispute is borne out by the fact that the issue remains on the agenda of the UN Security Council and the United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan continue to monitor the situation.
Q- 7: India would disintegrate if Kashmir issue is resolved in accordance with UN resolution.
Ans:- Kashmir was never a part of India. Therefore, the question is without reference to history or law. Illegal occupation of territory by means of force does not make that territory part of any state.
Q- 8: Kashmiris have acceded to India and are participating in State Legislative Assembly Elections.
Ans:- The State Assembly elections held by India since 1947 have been farcical and illegal. These elections were boycotted by the Kashmiri people and their true representatives.Resolution 122 (195) Adopted by the Security Council at its 765 the Meeting on 24, January, 1957 states: " Reaffirms the affirmation in its resolution 91 (1951) and declares that the convening of a Constituent Assembly as recommended by the General Council of the "All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference" and any action that Assembly may have taken or might attempt to take to determine the future shape and affiliation of the entire state or any part thereof, or action by the parties concerned in support of any such action by the Assembly, would not constitute a disposition of the state in accordance with the above principle". |