News Release/ Communiqué de presse
KCC urges Commonwealth leaders to hold India accountable for human rights
violations in Kashmir
Toronto November 23, 2007: On the occasion of the Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala, Uganda (November 23-25),
Kashmiri-Canadian Council (KCC) has urged leaders to persuade India and
Pakistan to allow the people of Kashmir the right of self-determination and
help to end their suffering and deprivation.
Mr. Mushtaq A. Jeelani, Executive Director of the KCC in separate letters to
53 Commonwealth leaders and the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth,
expressed his serious concern about worsening human rights situation in
Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
The Executive Director reminded the leaders that the people of Kashmir
continue to be deprived of their inalienable right of self-determination,
which is enshrined in the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council,
and have remained unimplemented for over half a century. The April 1948
Security Council resolution declared: the only way to settle the Kashmir
problem peacefully was to demilitarise the state and hold a plebiscite under
the UN supervision.
He underscored that the Kashmir issue has dominated the geopolitics of South
Asia for the past 60 years because of continuing rivalry between India and
Pakistan - both members of the Commonwealth. They have fought three wars since
their independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over the disputed region
of Kashmir. The dispute between the rivals is the root of competing in nuclear
arms race, which has resulted into the diversion of their resources from human
development to militarisation. Regrettably, it is the people of Kashmir who
have been caught in the middle of this deadly tug-of-war.
Mr. Jeelani underlined that India and Pakistan declared a ceasefire across
the Ceasefire Line - a.k.a. - Line of Control within the disputed state of
Jammu and Kashmir in November 2003, and later launched a peace process
committed to resolve the Kashmir issue, among other issues through
negotiations. The overall achievement of the peace process was the launch of
the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service (in April 2005) and the opening of entry
points along the Ceasefire Line, which divides the disputed state into Indian
and Pakistani administered Kashmir, for civilian crossing. Unfortunately, to
date there has been no progress on the question of Kashmir.
The Executive Director reminded the leaders that despite the warming ties
between the rivals there is no let-up in systematic human rights abuses. The
occupying troops continue to carry out arbitrary detention, summary
executions, custodial killings, extrajudicial executions, enforced
disappearances, rape, sexual exploitation, torture and fake encounters. Since
October 1989, the 700,000 strong Indian forces have killed more than 100,000
Kashmiris to silence the peoples demand for freedom, justice and respect for
human rights. He added that generations of Kashmiris have grown up under the
shadow of the gun; not a single family is unaffected; property worth hundreds
of millions dollars has been destroyed and the suffering and devastation
continues unabated, which has sadly drawn no significant attention from the
international community, including the Commonwealth.
Mr. Jeelani cautioned the leaders that impunity has become a licence for the
Indian occupation forces to wreak havoc with the lives of Kashmiris. The
deliberate and unprovoked attacks and other patterns of abuse have all become
too frequent to report. No perpetrator has ever been prosecuted in a real
manner, despite the fact that such crimes have been extensively documented by
many international human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International. Very recently the New York-based Human Rights Watch has
again demanded an immediate end to impunity in Kashmir.
He reminded the leaders that 15 million people of Kashmir are yearning for
peace, justice and freedom. They want a just and dignified peace that
guarantees total freedom from foreign occupation and alien domination. Their
struggle to achieve that right of self-determination will not be extinguished
until India and Pakistan accept its exercise by the people of Jammu and
Kashmir.
The Executive Director cautioned the leaders that the perception that the
Kashmir issue is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan is wrong.
Kashmir is not a territorial or bilateral issue, it is about the future of 15
million people, and it does not constitute an un-demarcated frontier between
India and Pakistan which could be marked through bilateral negotiations
between New Delhi and Islamabad. The disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir is
inhabited by a people with their own history of independence; their own
language and culture; their own individuality; it is not real estate, which
can be parcelled out between the two rivals. He added that this has been an
unambiguous reason that the nuclear-armed rivals have failed to resolve the
issue during their 60 years of on-again, off-again negotiations. And warned
that today, Kashmir is one of the most dangerous nuclear flashpoint of the
world. It is the people of Kashmir who are living with the consequences
of the status quo.
Mr. Jeelani underscored that New Zealand, a member of the Commonwealth, has
set a good example by allowing the people of Tokelau total population of
1,449 as of July 2007, but only 789 voters were entitled to vote in a
referendum to vote for self-determination under the supervision of the
United Nations, as recently as October 25th, 2007, the second such ballot in
less than two years. In fact during the past several years, other disputed
regions have had the UN-supervised referendum including East Timor. He asked
will this motivate Commonwealth leaders to persuade India and Pakistan to
allow the people of Kashmir the right of self-determination and help to end
their suffering and deprivation?
He underlined that the right to self-determination is a fundamental
principle in international law. It is embodied in the Charter of the United
Nations and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Common Article
1, paragraph 1 of these Covenants provides that: All peoples have the rights
of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their
political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural
development.
The Executive Director emphasised that the right to self-determination of
peoples is recognised in many other international and regional instruments,
including the Declaration of Principles of International Law Concerning
Friendly Relations and Co-operation Among States adopted by the UN General
Assembly in 1970; the Helsinki Final Act adopted by the Conference on Security
and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) in 1975; the African Charter of Human and
Peoples Rights of 1981; the CSCE Charter of Paris for a New Europe adopted in
1990; and the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights. The 1994 Social
Summit in Copenhagen, the Millennium Summit 2000 and the UN World Summit 2005
have all affirmed the right of all people to self-determination in situations
of foreign occupation and alien domination. Moreover, in April 2006, the UN
General Assembly, while establishing the Human Rights Council, recognised the
principle of equal rights and self-determination of
peoples.
He reminded the leaders that the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights imposes specific obligations on all nations not only in
relation to their own population but vis-à-vis all people, who have not been
able to exercise, or have been deprived of the possibility of exercising their
right of self-determination. It urges nations to take positive action to
facilitate the realisation of, and respect for the right of people to
self-determination.
Mr. Jeelani said that both the Harare and Singapore Declarations reaffirmed
commitment of the Commonwealth to the promotion of international understanding
and world peace. The Harare Declaration further reaffirmed fundamental human
rights including equal rights...for all...regardless of their political belief
on the principles to which Commonwealth countries are committed; the
Commonwealth however, has been turning a blind eye to the unprecedented human
rights abuses in Indian-administered Kashmir, particularly during the last 18
years.
He underlined that it is high time that Commonwealth leaders meeting in
Kampala demand that India put an end to widespread human rights violations by
its security forces, and to bring the perpetrators to justice. Mr. Jeelani
warned that the poor human rights records of any member country undermine the
Commonwealths important role of promoting human rights, democracy, good
governance and the rule of law. Commonwealth members need to hold leaders
accountable for their abusive human rights records.
The Executive Director urged the leaders to encourage the UN to implement
its longstanding resolutions on Kashmir; by doing so the Commonwealth will in
principle implement the Harare Declaration: support the United Nations and
other international institutions in worlds search for peace, disarmament and
effective arms control; and in the promotion of international consensus on
major political, economic and social issues.
Mr. Jeelani warned that the failure of the Commonwealth to address the
unresolved issue of Kashmir would be making a mockery of the 1991 Harare
Declaration and point to institutional weaknesses in the Commonwealths
capacity to promote and protect human rights.
-30-
Muslims "must" unite all over the World
and pray for the appearance of al Mahdi (r.a.) the Saviour of mankind
the descendent of Prophet Muhammed s.a.w.
---------------------------------
Looking for a X-Mas gift? Everybody needs a Flickr Pro Account!
