Jakarta, Indonesia: “The main characteristics of Kashmir dispute is that it prevails in what is recognized - under international law and by the United Nations - as a disputed territory. According to the international agreements between India and Pakistan, negotiated by the United Nations and endorsed by the Security Council, the territory's status is to be determined by the free vote of its people under U.N. supervision” said Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director, Kashmiri American Council/Kashmir Center while speaking on the subject, “India – Pakistan Relation: The issue of Kashmir” in Jakarta, Indonesia. Dr. Fai also addressed the ‘International Family Conference’ in West Java, Bandung, Indonesia that was attended by the delegates from more than 40 countries.
Fai elaborated, “It is an undeniable fact that the past 64 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. 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”.
India claims to be the ‘World's Largest Democracy’ but its actions in Kashmir speak otherwise. Rather than seeking to rectify its human rights record, India has legalized state-sponsored terror in Kashmir." Fai quoted Bertrand Russell who said in 1964, “The high idealism of the Indian government in international matters breaks down completely when confronted with the question of Kashmir.”
He expressed his serious concern that India commits massive human rights violations in order to suppress a popular movement for self-determination. It has been met with studied unconcern by the United Nations. This has given a sense of total impunity to India. It has also created the impression that the United Nations is selective about the application of the principles of human rights and democracy. There is a glaring contrast between the outcry over the massacre in Tiananmen Square, on the one side, and the official silence over the killing and maiming of a vastly greater number of civilians in Kashmir and the systematic violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention.
Dr. Fai said that the international community and particularly developed countries see economic potential in India. They don't want to loose this economic opportunity by raising the question of human rights in Kashmir. Otherwise, the situation in Kashmir is no more difficult than in other trouble spots of the world. The only difference is that there is no international electronic media that can show the atrocities in Kashmir to the outside world.
Dr. Fai said that the solution to the suffering of everyone in Kashmir — Muslim, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs — lies in finding a peaceful negotiated settlement to the crisis. This can only happen if the United States and the United Nations take an active role in facilitating a dialogue between all the parties to the dispute. Any attempt to strike a deal between two without the association of the third, will fail to yield a credible settlement. This has been made unmistakably clear by the flimsy arguments that were contrived in the past six decades.
Kashmiri culture is neither vengeful nor retributive. It teaches sympathy and compassion for all humans of whatever station, religion, ethnicity, or ideological persuasion, Fai added.
Dr. Fai reminded President Obama that an appointment of a special envoy on Kashmir would hasten the process of peace and stability in the region that includes India, Pakistan, Kashmir & Afghanistan.
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