- Kashmir: Occupied,
Partitioned and Disputed
by Vinicius
Souza, Caros Amigos, São Paulo
While New Delhi’s population tried to escape from a 40ºC
heat by slipping into air-conditioned shopping centers
some 400 miles to the southeast, we gazed upon a cold
drizzle through the open third floor window of a building
without energy in the middle of Srinagar, the “summer
capital” of Indian- occupied Kashmir. The drizzle slowly
turned into snow.
“It last snowed in April in 1987, I guess,” remembers
Mohammad Morifat
Qadri, publisher of the Afaaq Diary.
Nineteen eighty seven is an emblematic year since it marks
the change in posture of some separatist leaders who,
because of a great number of arrests and fraudulent
elections, decided to take up arms. It was the
beginning of a new escalation of military tension in this
region, making
Kashmir, already hotly disputed by two nuclear potencies –
India and
Pakistan – for more than 50 years, one of the most
militarized territories
in the world..
“Maybe it is just a sign of new changes in the situation
of Kashmir,” I
dared say. “Inshala,” answers Qadri. God willing.
Despite its strategic importance among India, Pakistan,
Afghanistan and Tibet, Kashmir has been treated by the
global media as a mere point of dispute between India and
Pakistan. It is rare to hear about the Kashmiri’s fight
for independence and self-determination. Even if
newspapers blame attacks on “extremist separatist” groups
instead of “terrorists”, readers remain confused about
“who wants to be partitioned? and from whom?” There are at
least 12 military or political groups acting there, and
three major leanings: independence, autonomy, and
annexation to Pakistan. There are two agreed points: the
retreat of troops and a popular inquiry about the future
of Kashmir.
Moreover, there is very little information about
international interests in
this region, especially in regard to the United States’
global war against
terror. Actually, there are as many CIA agents in Kashmir
as there are Al Qaeda members, and according to the most
recent NATO policies, after September 11, the United
States does have a “legal justification” to invade the
territory. As a matter of fact, when Pakistan became a
major non-NATO ally of the United States the pressure
increased on political-military circles to solve, once and
for all, the problem of Kashmir. It is not casual that the
first formal meeting, since 2001, between Pakistan and
India would be happening this month. In 2001 an attack on
India’s
Parliament, which was blamed on Kashimiri separatists
supported by
Pakistan, led more than 1,000,000 soldiers to the Line of
Control (LoC) -
the United Nations-drawn border dividing Kashmir into
Pakistani- and
Indian-controlled areas. It almost led to nuclear war.
“The international community has been failing to hear the
voice of Kashmiri people, maybe because we don’t have oil
or anything else to offer,” says Mohammad Yaseen Malik,
president of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
One of the first groups to join the fight, JKLF is now
devoted to political actions. Malik was one of its leaders
in the campaign for boycotting elections in Kashmir. Less
than 18 percent of the electors voted and many of them
were constrained to go to the polls by military forces. In
the day before our interview, Malik had been beaten and
arrested during a demonstration in Islamabad, a Kashmiri
city. In the following days, he would be arrested again.
“After September 11th,” Malik continues, “USA and Europe
had to propose new plans for peace and stability to the
world, and we hope it also involves Kashmir, through
popular participation. We are not able to foresee the
future, but sooner or later, we will be unified, with no
more LoC, and free from India and Pakistan.”
“I might say with no hesitation that American interests
are neither for
humanitarian causes nor for justice,” argues Syed Ali
Geelani, the
president of All Parties Hurriayt Conference, an
organization that
assembles separatist parties and groups. “Why should we
expect any action coming from them or even from
international community? Just notice how this global
potency has been treating the Iraq prisoners of war! We
will continue our efforts at United Nations in order to
protect our essential rights, regardless the obvious
antipathy Security Committee shows about Muslims. We are
all Muslims but, above all, we are humans. We must have
faith in the greatest power of all, the power of Allah!”
A History of
Occupations
The Vale of Kashmir, famous for its magnificent natural
beauty, with vast fertile areas, rivers and lakes
surrounded by big high mountains, always arouses dreams of
independence in its governors, most of whom have been
foreigners. Since the third century A.D., Buddhist, Hindu,
Mongolian, Afghan, Muslim and Sikh kings or princes ruled,
totally or in part, this Indian state that is currently
known as Jammu and Kashmir. Its population always
suffered, sometimes more, sometimes less, according to the
governor’s personality. The Dogra dynasty, for example,
which ruled until 1947, held the “right” to exercise the
so called Beggar - to collect people in cities and
villages for forced labor, giving them nothing for it, not
even food. When they died of hunger, thirst or injuries,
they were simply replaced by others.
With the end of British domination in 1947, governors of
each state in
India had to decide whether their respective territories
would be
incorporated into India or into Pakistan, based on three
factors:
territorial contiguity, religious predominance and free
will of the people.
Despite its long frontier with Pakistan, and the fact that
90 percent of
its population was Muslim, the state was ruled by a Hindu
Maharaja, Hari Singh. Singh was tempted to grant autonomy
to the region but hesitated to make this decision. Only
after the eastern part of the territory had been invaded
by the Pakistani Pashtun tribes did he decided to sign a
statement of adhesion to India. Then the military forces
came “to his aid.” Approximately 300,000 Muslims who tried
to emigrate to Pakistan are said to have been killed by
Dogra and Sikh military troops.
The first war between India and Pakistan for Kashmir
control lasted until
1949, when the Line of Control was established, keeping
apart many families and fellow-countrymen. Since then, the
United Nations Security Council has set many resolutions
concerning the Kashmir situation and required the
achievement of a plebiscite through which people could
decide their own future. However, India has ignored these
resolutions and, since 1957, defended its argument that
the state of Jammu and Kashmir integrates its territory.
From this time on, things have been growing worse and
worse. “Typical of any nuclear potency, India is an
arrogant and imperialist country, hence it refuses to make
international agreements and to accomplish the UN
resolutions,” says an international spectator, whom we
have talked with.
Conventions and
Agreements
In the 1990’s, India allowed the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) to operate in its territory.
According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the
Red Cross is allowed to visit prisoners related to the
conflict, about 1,500 currently, and to report to Indian
authorities how these people have been treated and whether
the procedures comply with the humanitarian rules
established by the Geneva Convention - the so called
International Humanitarian Rights (IHR). The Red Cross, in
turn, agreed to keep these reports in confidence and not
question the way these arrests have been processed. This
is the only possible way to get access to prisons.
“We’ve made some progress and we are extending our
actions,” says Robert Przedpelski, chief of the Red Cross’
South Asia delegation. “Since last year, for example,
we’ve been providing courses on IHR addressed to the
security forces in this region, it might avoid greater
problems in the future.” The ICRC has also helped the Red
Cross in India to build an orthopedic unit in the city of
Jammu, the winter capital of Kashmir, and to improve
signaling systems for the big minefields in Pakistan’s
frontiers. India did not sign any agreement for clearing
the minefields; on the contrary, it has implemented a
great number of them during the last decade.
Atrocities
Off the battlefield, the actions of Indian forces, not
only in the prisons
but also in the streets of Kashmiri cities and in their
frequent “Siege and
Search” operations within rural areas, are a great terror
for all the
people. After all, India has approximately 600,000
soldiers stationed in
that region, three fold more than the foreign occupation
troops in Iraq.
These men, whose religion, food, language and culture are
different from
those of the Kashmiri, are responsible for killing 60,000
to 90,000 persons in the last 15 years - years of terrific
atrocities.
The Himalayan Mail, a local newspaper, publishes daily on
its first page
the “official placard” of persons who were killed in the
year. On May 6,
the score announced 547 deaths since January 1: 152
civilians, 321
militants and 74 members of security forces. The book
“Catch and Kill – A Pattern of Genocide in Kashmir,”
published in 1997, depicts details about the 129 extra
judicial executions of civilians under custody, including
women, elderly and teenagers, that occurred just between
Oct. 10,1996 and March 31, 1997. A report in Asia Watch,
dated May 1991, documented 100 cases of rape from the
village Kuan Poshpora committed by soldiers of the 4th Raj
Rifle Regiment of Kupwara, showing 53 testimonies,
including one of a pregnant woman, who said that she had
been raped in front of her 6-year- old son.
“Indian military occupation of Kashmir has always been
illegal, immoral and inhumane,” concludes Syed Ali Geelani.
“There are more than 10,000 disappeared persons. People in
jails have been tortured with glowing irons and electrical
shocks. In many cases, their families receive only pieces
of a corpse to be buried. Thousands of villages have been
frequently burnt with any sensible reason or
justification. Even if there is a mujahedin hidden in one
of these locations, there would be no reason to burn an
entire village. I could list thousands of dead persons’
names here and none of them was a militant, terrorist or
guerrilla fighter.”
Just a few steps away from the main streets of Srinagar we
could find in
smaller alleys and stores ordinary people who were willing
to talk openly
about the problems they face. In the district of Dalgate,
a man noticed our interest in the children playing around
the graves of a cemetery. He came closer to show us the
burial places of martyrs that were killed by Indian
soldiers - the case of his son. “This is a small cemetery,
there are hundreds of larger ones, especially in the
mountain villages,” he says. “This will only have an end
when Indian forces leave Kashmir and we become finally
independent.”
Checkpoints
Abdul Geni Wani, whose family lives in Bandipoyra, works
at three
houseboats (floating hotel rooms on Dal Lake) during the
summer. Three of his militant cousins were killed by the
Indian army. Despite his position for independence, he
doesn’t believe in weapons. “Koran says: a good Muslim
should not kill,” he ponders. Wani explains that this is
his last working year in Srinagar because he is afraid to
leave his family alone. “My oldest son is 15-years-old,
the soldiers might come upon him and decide to arrest or
kill him, just because they think he is a mujahedin,” he
says. He tell us about an episode in which his son
witnessed an execution in the middle of the street, and
another one in which his son was detained by troops,
rifles pointed at his head. I asked him if we could visit
his home and he answered that we would need to provide an
authorization card showing his village address in order to
cross the checkpoints.
But there is no need to take secondary pathways to be
stopped at Kashmiri checkpoints. They are everywhere. To
visit the small Hindu temple of Shankaracharya, we have to
travel a 4 k.m. road with three checkpoints. Personal
inspections and metal detectors are also common in bank
entrances, post offices and mosques. In the main mosque,
the great Hazart Bal, the cleric Bashir Aamad Farroqi
addressed a sermon on May 3 to 15,000 persons, among
soldiers and rifles.
Along the road to Gulmarg, a ski resort one hour from
downtown Srinagar, there are soldiers every 100 meters.
Around Dal Lake there are soldiers every 10-15 meters.
Boatmen who drive the shikara (a typical boat similar to a
gondola) must stop at the post located in the middle of
the lake to show their work authorization and identify all
their passengers. It’s no surprise that the presence of
tourists is quite rare.
Mental Health
Constant tensions, military occupation and the abusive
actions of soldiers have also made a great impact on the
population’s mental health. There is no more night life
and options for amusement grow scarce. Only one of the 12
movie theaters operating in Srinagar in the early 1990’s
remains open; likewise, there are only two functioning
bars among the hundred’s that existed before. “Due to the
conflict, there are great needs in mental health sector of
the population,” says Stuart Zimble, chief of Doctors
Without Borders’ (DWB) Delhi delegation. “We helped to
restore the infrastructure of the unique psychiatric
hospital in the state, and we also requested one part of
the building with an external entrance to provide advising
services to people who have been affected by continuous
stress or post-traumatic stress.”
Saskia Ohlin, DWB’s delegate in Srinagar, tells us that
cases of people who lost their relatives in the conflict,
or were arrested and tortured, or
witnessed attacks, are quite common. “But most of the
persons that come to us are affected by problems related
to prolonged stress, such as depression, headaches,
apathy, palpitation, insomnia,” she says. Up to 200
patients visit the medical office daily. The institution
has been trying to reach zones hard to access, especially
those near the Line of Control. DWB has a weekly radio
program, in which some dramatizations concerning ordinary
situations are presented. “Our advisers are the local
workers we train and supervise, and they advise people to
share their troubles with friends, to attend parties, to
listen music, to pray.”
Solution?
As I was about to end this article, I read in the
newspapers about a new
attack by Hizbul Mujahideen, a Pakistan-based rebel group.
More than 33 people died, among them the wives and
relatives of Indian soldiers. The Associated Press
published a statement from the new Prime Minister,
Manmohan Singh: “The persistence of this senseless
violence in Kashmir is yet another indication that
terrorism continues to pose a grave threat to our nation’s
integrity and progress, while we will continue to seek
peaceful resolutions.” At this same time, I thought of a
report that had been restricted to Kashmiri newspapers,
only. Two weeks before, the operation commander of Hizbul
Mujahideen, Ghazi Shaha-ud-Din, had been led to the
interior of a house in Gurgadi Mohalla by the police
before the view of tens of people. He later turned up
dead. The official version says, obviously, that a gun
fight took place after police discovered his hideout. The
news goes on being manipulated.
I decided to send an e-mail to a Kashmiri colleague to get
his opinion
about the new Indian government and to find out if the
perspectives related to the meeting between India and
Pakistan had been changed. Mohammad Qadri answered that he
is still optimistic, that members of the new office are
all old leaders of the Congress Party and, therefore, they
know more than anyone the question of Kashmir because they
also participated in the agreements between Pakistani and
Kashmiri leaders in 1971 and 1975. He adds also one more
important notice: soon after the meeting, the Indian Union
Home Minister, Shiv Raj Patil, will finally meet the
leaders of the All Parties Hurriayt Conference. This might
be indeed the beginning of a solution for the question of
Kashmir. Inshala!
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Kashmir:The
Most Dangerous Game
