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NEED FOR ALLIANCE BUILDING

The different groups of the civil society in Kashmir took a bold initiative when in June 2000 there was an interaction between the Kashmir civil society and the Indian civil society groups in Srinagar. Thirty-eight civil society actors from India headed by Mr Ram Das, the retired Admiral (Awarded this year Magsaysay Award) and the Chairman of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy, deliberated over the issue of peace and democracy. It was also deliberated how Kashmir issue would be resolved.

The two-day deliberations adopted Srinagar Declaration. This people-to-people initiative was widely appreciated by the people and politicians. It was felt that more such interactions should be held in future. It was also felt that a strong public opinion could be mobilized against the nuclearisation in the region and in favour of building pressure on the Indian Government to resolve the Kashmir issue according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people, as it is bleeding the parties, and threatening the peace in the subcontinent. There was a follow up meeting at Delhi in November 2000 in which the civil society actors from India, Pakistan and Kashmir participated and discussed the issue of Kashmir, nuclearisation and peace.

            There was a growing realization in Kashmir for building alliances with the European civil society, which is more organized, powerful and also concerned about the possible outbreak of nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. In this connection, The Coalition of Civil Society (CCS), which comprises of different organizations entered into a partnership with Interchurch Peace Council or IKV-a Netherlands - based NGO - in March 2001 for building alliances with their counterparts in Europe.

The CCS and the IKV felt there was an urgent need

1.      For protecting the International Humanitarian Law;

2.      For peace, democracy and secularism;

3.      For de-militarization, de-nuclearisation in Southeast Asia and

 

4.  For resolving the Kashmir dispute, which has threatened peace in the region, according to the wishes of people.