Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
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Notwithstanding the fact India is fast losing Kashmir as being its “integral” part, it is still interested in allowing its heavy military forces to terrorize people in that former paradise and win a “crucial” point over Pakistan.
Indian regime and state governments have threatened with sedition proceedings against anyone who does not support Indian claims, both legal and illegal. Fearing repressive measures of the regime, many Indians do not ask India to withdraw extra military forces from Kashmir that terrorize Museums there or end the ultra military laws imposed on Kashmiris. When some creative thinkers oppose the militarization of Kashmir valley or fake encounters to target Muslims or false polls with rigging in that restive zone only to claim legitimacy over of Kashmir. Pakistan also claims Kashmir.
However, that the ruling JK government or major political parties do not ask for sovereignty from occupation forces of India is that New Delhi wants.
Sardar Masood Khan, President Azad Jammu Kashmir, said that Kashmiris are determined to win their freedom and secure their right to self-determination despite uncertainties in the geopolitical scenarios and Indians obduracy. President Khan made these remarks while addressing the participants of the 19th National Security Workshop at the National Defense University, Islamabad.
The AJK President conveyed the gratitude of people of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan for its steadfast support for Kashmir and the tremendous sacrifices it had given in the process. “Kashmiris have given their blood, and they have been waging their peaceful struggle for the past 70 years. They have been victims of ethnic cleansing, genocide, and crimes against humanity but this has never weakened their determination to work for a just solution of the Kashmir solution.” Realpolitik, he said, was hampering Kashmir’s freedom but Kashmiris have never stopped giving sacrifices for the liberation of IOK from the illegitimate Indian rule.
President Masood Khan criticized Indian External Minister Sushma Swaraj’s crude attempt at the United Nation General Assembly to characterize the Kashmir issue as a bilateral issue. “It never was and never will be a bilateral issue. It is a trilateral issue among Pakistan, India and the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and the fourth player in the UN which has passed a resolution for a democratic solution to the dispute. Besides, if left unresolved, the Kashmir dispute has serious repercussion for regional and international peace and security.”, he said.
Khan said that through bi-lateralization of the Kashmir dispute Pakistan had lost ground in the international forums. “From being a core issue between India and Pakistan, many now perceive it as a dispute between India and Pakistan. to rectify this mistake, it is imperative that the Kashmiris in Pakistan take the issue to international forums where it rightly belongs.”, he said.
Outlining a forward-looking strategy for an effective Kashmir policy, Sardar Masood Khan said that the people of Pakistan and Kashmir must demonstrate unity among their ranks, leverage the Diaspora community, invest in effective communication through the media, think tanks, academic institutions, and civil societies, and make AJK and Pakistan political and economically strong.
Why is the UN extremely passive?
Unable to take an independent and natural position on Kashmir, UK keeps telling the world the impossibility that India and Pakistan would solve the Kashmir issue on their own, knowing full well they refuse just that and could fight more wars to retain the forcefully stolen lands from Kashmiris. Naively UN says that it will intervene only if India and Pakistan request them to do.
While India is becoming stronger in military and finances, Pakistan is weakening day by day through the rich and corporate lords, and cricketers continue to thrive economically there too.
However, both South Asian “giants” have no image or prestige on the world arena.
Neither India nor Pakistan would do that as they have not asked UN to intervene to find a solution to make the South Asia region tension free and nuke-free. Both have hidden agendas as they do not want to quit Kashmir to let the Kashmiris decide their future course.
Since the top veto members USA and Russia directly control the UN, nothing is going to change on the present status of Kashmir, but both India and Pakistan know they cannot occupy the foreign nation Kashmir, sandwiched between them forever. Kashmiris are in struggle mode, and they are not going to accept the present status quo imposed on them by India, Pakistan, China and UK-USA fascist towns.
UN has been rendered weak by the veto members, and it cannot take any decision on their own because the veto fellows would strike them down. Earlier, the then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the UN has nothing new to add on Kashmir issue, but if both India and Pakistan make requests to us to intervene, he will do the needful. As it stands, no such request has come to UN headquarters from both. The UN chief added that he would use his “good offices” to help India and Pakistan mend fences – again only if both countries requested it. But rhetoric remains unchanged.
Ban had expressed concern in the past over tension between the two South Asian nuclear neighbors and in June. “Our hope in this is that the leaders of the two countries will continue to engage with each other and try to resolve the situation peacefully and amicably. And we will see where they go with that.”
UN cannot take actions over Kashmir voluntarily as India, more than Pakistan, protests that.
UN’s foolish stand on Kashmir
Passive nature and weak character of UN have harmed the genuine interests of many nations and sovereignty struggle of many nations. The fate of Kashmiris has been hanging on it.
Upon a prolonged struggle the Palestinians have achieved de facto membership of UN and along with certain rights and privileges , including the right to approach the international courts against perpetual Zionist crimes in Palestine territories.
The incumbent UN General Secretary also doesn’t have any new ideas about solving the Kashmir issue amicably and in favor of the affected Kashmiris.
India frantically claims that Jammu Kashmir remains an integral part of India and there cannot be any debate on that as New Delhi does not like even to discuss the issue even as Kashmiris get killed by Indian occupation forces almost on a daily basis.
Like Israel against Palestine, India wants to solve the bilateral problems with its neighbors in its way. New Delhi maintains that any issues between India and Pakistan, if at all any, should be resolved by them without any third party involvement, including UN or USA.
Strangely enough, UN and USA expect India and Pakistan would resolve the issue “amicably. But India and Pakistan just play crossword games at LOC firing arms at each other, terrorizing the Kashmiris.
It is ridiculous on the part of UN to believe that India and Pakistan with huge arsenals of nukes and other arms – meant for retaining Kashmir- would approach the UN to find a common language and resume better relations peacefully. Cross-border fires between the nuclear powers surrounding Jammu Kashmir, continue to terrorize the Kashmiris on either side of the LOC.
It is undeniable that the past 70 years have proven that bilateral India-Pakistan negotiations to resolve Kashmir conflict are simply charades that achieve nothing but more strife and horror stories in Kashmir. A new negotiating formula is thus urgently required both in the name of international peace, security and human rights. All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) must apart of negotiations so that the talks are tenable.
The element that has been missing in efforts towards a settlement is the political representation of Kashmiris on the negotiating table along with India and Pakistan. The All Parties Hurriyet Conference that represents the broader spectrum of the opinion of the Kashmiri people is unswervingly devoted to a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute, and is eager to explore constructive approaches to jump-starting the longstanding Kashmir stalemate that has ensued when the problem has been perceived as bilateral, to the exclusion of the 20 million Kashmiri people.
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed serious concern about the situation in Kashmir and proposed on September 13, 2016, that an independent, impartial and international mission is now needed crucially and that it should be given free and complete access to establish an objective assessment of the claims made by the two sides.
UN should without losing time come out with a credible formula to help Kashmiris, India, and Pakistan to understand one another and rewrite their common history for a bright future for all of them.
Observation:
As India continues to claim its ownership of Jammu Kashmir, some freedom fighters these days counterclaim that Kashmir belongs to Pakistan. That is not a serious attitude, and Indian military can easily kill the remaining Kashmiri Muslims in a sustained manner. Pakistan could help the Azad Kashmir government to think for their future. However, once free, Kashmir could pursue a neutral policy with its nuke neighbors, without antagonizing now powerful military India whose depots of terror arsenals are being extended with new equipment from USA and Israel.
Needless to say that Kashmir conflict is perhaps the most dangerous conflict in the world because of the spiraling nuclear and missile race between India and Pakistan coupled with historical enmities that have occasioned three wars between the two rivals.
It is implausible to believe that these two neighboring countries will either cap or renounce their respective nuclear genies after they have escaped the South Asian bottle unless the chief source of antagonism between the two — Kashmir — is resolved. It is obvious that no settlement can last if it is not based on justice for the people of Kashmir and recognition of their inherent rights.
It is the time the UN stepped in to resolve the crisis and let Kashmiris live peacefully as legitimate citizens of Kashmir. Already Indian forces have killed over 100, 000 Kashmiris, most of them are Muslims. Not only India seeks to silence the Kashmiris seeking freedom, but also India uses the genocides of Kashmiri Muslims to appease the Hindus in India.
Active UN involvement in this matter will bring its influence to bear on both India and Pakistan to initiate peaceful negotiations with which the UN, as well as the genuine leadership of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, will be associated to ensure that settlement arrived at will be based on the principles of justice.
World is urging a leadership role of the UN in resolving the 70-year-old Kashmir conflict that has inflicted pain, agony, and injustice on a scale that makes Kashmir also like Palestine an open prison where a perpetual disaster has been taking place and more than 100,000 killings in the past two decades alone, and routine rape, torture, mutilation, plunder, disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and ruthless punishment of peaceful political dissent.
Regional peace has been hijacked by the two nuclear powers that seek to showcase their military prowess by perpetual conflictual situations by crossfires and competitive missile tests. South Asia requires peace and stability, and India and Pakistan cannot continue to terrorizing Kashmiris by occupying their nation in the Himalayas.
While India, killing Muslims in Kashmir in a sustained manner, is clear about what it says to the world on Kashmir that it is India’s integral part and reserves its right to kill any Kashmiri who demands freedom and sovereignty from nuclearized military India, Pakistan is not revealing what it seeks to resolve the Kashmir issue for two reasons. One, Islamabad does not want to let Azad Kashmir that it control as part of its territory to decide anything for themselves, and it must do exactly what Pakistan wants and tells them. Two, Pakistan wants to keep them believe that it is fighting for the Kashmiris and would very like to recreate Jammu Kashmir back as a sovereign nation, but Pakistan never says anything openly, its only talks about resolution meaninglessly. Honesty and frankness is missing Pakistani statements.
The truth is Pakistan wants Kashmiris to fight for Pakistan and join it as its integral part. For sure, Pakistan does not want to cede Azad Kashmir to Jammu Kashmir even if India is ready to let Kashmiris get sovereignty back. Since clarity is missing in Pakistani statements, it is clear both India and Pakistan have hidden agenda intact against a sovereign Jammu Kashmir.
President Azad Jammu Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan, who is sure that the people of Kashmir, despite all the difficulties and hurdles, will attain their freedom from the illegal Indian occupation should specify what exactly he wants when India grants sovereignty to Kashmir- Will he like to make a unified Kashmir to become a sovereign nation and apply for UN membership or will he like to entire Kashmir to be a part of a now destabilized corrupt Pakistan. His clarity would speed up or end the process of freeing Kashmir from Indian control.
Pragmatism would help Kashmiris regain the lost sovereignty while any foolishness on Azad Kashmir part can ruin Kashmir as per Indian scheme. If Azad Kashmir government is interested in taking both parts of Kashmir into Pakistani constitution, let me tell you, the status quo cannot change and a weak Pakistan that lives on the strength of tits wasteful nukes can never defeat India in any future wars.
So long as India refuses to resolve the explosive Kashmir issue amicably by taking into confidence the masses fighting for freedom and sovereign status, Indian regime and core corporate media lords would continue to look at India’s Muslim citizens as second class and unwanted ones and make the majority population hate the hapless Muslim believers. And, unless India can present a unified cultured Indian perspective world would not take it seriously as a modern state.