SOLIDARITY STATEMENT

 

(On the Occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day)

The Rights of the Kashmiri People to Self-Determination

A Way to Stopping Conflict and Human Rights Violation in Kashmir

Because of the beauty of its nature and landscape in the Himalaya mountainous area, Kashmir was known as a paradise on earth. However, since 1989 when the Indian government installed military operation against the armed militants groups fighting for independence, the paradise was turned to be a hell. The Indian military deployment in the valley of Kashmir is more than half million troops and the biggest military mobilization in the world. And just like every armed conflict, the civil society is always the main to be victimized.

According to the official figures, since May 1990 to May 31 2003, 34,709 persons have got killed while as All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), a conglomerate of pro-independence group, says 90,000 people have died. About 20,000 women have been widowed while another 1000 are living, as ‘half-widows’ since the fate of their husbands, who disappeared in custody, is not known. The number of victims of enforced or involuntary disappearance, mostly non-combatants, is pegged at 8,000. However, officials say 3,931 are missing from May 1990 to May 2003. More than 25,000 children have been orphaned. Thousands of Kashmiri youth have been reduced to a psychological wreck by systematic torture.

According to studies, most Kashmiris today suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and are in need of urgent treatment. As against 1,762 patients registered during 1990 at Government Psychiatry Diseases Hospital in Srinagar (the only one of its kind in Kashmir Valley), the number of patients who visited the hospital in 2000 went up to a staggering 38,696. In 2002 the figure further rose to nearly 48,000. Shockingly, the figures have already crossed 48,000 up to September 2003. It is worthwhile to mention that before the eruption of conflict in Kashmir in 1989 there was hardly any case of PTSD. Suicide rates particularly among the women and youth have also gone up. This, the experts say, is sufficient to ring the alarm bells.

The cause of the ongoing conflict and violence in Kashmir is that The Indian armed forces have been granted impunity under the Jammu and Kashmir Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. Besides, the Government of India refuses United Nations role on Kashmir, it refuses the third party mediations, even facilitation by US and tries to convince the international community that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.

Lately, India and Pakistan have initiated resolution to the ongoing violence in Kashmir. One of the initiatives is the meeting between the Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that resulted, among others, in the opening up transportation lines between Indian Occupied Kashmir (Srinagar) and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (Muzaffarabad). However, the Kashmiri is still doubt with the initiatives because there have been several agreements between India and Pakistan for resolving Kashmir imbroglio but the Indian government has not engaged in the meaningful and the purposeful dialogue for resolving it. There is lurking fear in Kashmir that even if there will be a settlement between India and Pakistan, it would be what suits them and will be imposed on Kashmiris. Kashmiris have generally welcomed the genuine dialogue process between India and Pakistan but at the same time are anxious for not taking them as the third party in the present dialogue process.

There are also many civil society initiatives happening between the Indian and the Pakistani civil society. There is interaction of human rights activists, journalists, students, the business community, women activists and others. But unfortunately in these programmes a people to people initiative, business, improving relations, Baghliar and many other things are discussed but there is hardly any initiative been taken to address the Kashmir dispute which is the root cause of conflict between India and Pakistan.

It is in this regard that the people in civil society in Kashmir will organize civil society initiative from Kashmir and for Kashmir, which will help in highlighting the self-determination movement of Kashmiris. And, also to honour the martyrs and pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for truth. This is for emphasizing the need for the global civil society to engage itself for the peaceful and the non-violent resolution of the Kashmir dispute according to the wishes of the Kashmir people, which will culminate into the peace in South Asia.

Accordingly, on the Day of Solidarity with the Martyrs and Disappeared to be held on 20th April 2004 on the occasion of one year of the death of Aasia Jeelani, a JKCCS activist got killed in a landmine blast while performing her duties as an election observer, during Indian parliament election of 2004 in Lolab valley, and the day of the laying of the foundation stone of the memorial in the memory of the disappeared persons of Kashmir on April 21, 2005 by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), we, the Indonesian Association of Families of the Disappeared (IKOHI) and the Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence (KONTRAS), carried out a picket in Indian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia for:

Demanding the Indian government to be accountable for the cases of human rights violation, particularly for the 8000 cases of forced disappearances in Kashmir.

Demanding the Indian government to stop the violence against the civilian, that has caused among other the death of the rights activists Aasia Jeelani and Ghulam Nabi for landmine blast on April 20, 2004

Supporting the APDP and civil society in Kashmir for their cry for peace and justice through the implementation of their rights to self-determination.

 

Jakarta, 20 April 2005

 

Mugiyanto

IKOHI Chairperson

 

Sri Suparyati

Internal Director of KONTRAS