#ichd

The Vice President of European Union, Mrs. Baroness Catherine Ashton said that the Union was following the developments in Kashmir very closely. She was responding to a recent letter by the Chairman of the ICHD, Ali Raza Syed, which drew attention of the Union over the current critical situation in the Indian held Kashmir. In the letter, he had urged the Union to take serious notice of the situation in the Indian Held Kashmir especially recent killings of youth by the Indian forces. 

She said that the Union had been a longstanding supporter for the reconciliation process between India and Pakistan with the involvement of Kashmiris themselves. Mrs.Ashton who is also high representative of the Union on external affairs and security policy said that the EU was aware of the situation and that the EU ambassadors in Delhi had held many visits to the vulnerable region. She said that they had developed over the years, a dialogue with Indian authorities over the human rights, which allowed raising any human rights related issues. She said that the EU was deeply committed to making the best possible use of that dialogue to advance cases of human rights in the region. 

The ICHD demanded significant role of the EU institutions in the current situation of the Indian Held Kashmir especially related to the human rights violations. In a letter addressed to EU High Representative for foreign Affairs, Ms. Catherine Ashton, Vice President of EU Commission, Mrs. Viviane Reding, Chair Subcommittee on Human Rights, Ms. Heidi Hautala and EU parliament Chair of the delegation for relations with South Asia, Mrs, Jean Lambert, the ICHD urged active EU involvement in bringing the positive change in the circumstances that were shocking for every peace-loving citizen of the world.

“We are writing to express our concerns over the recent increase in human rights violations in Indian held Kashmir. We would urge the EU intervention in the affair”, wrote the ICHD in the letter. The letter also indicated the fresh statement of UN Secretary General in which Mr. Ban Ki moon described the situation as a security risk.
 
The letter further mentioned that, “the operations such as those carried out on the 25th of July 2010 lead to the deaths of Tariq Ahmad Dar and Farooq Ahmad Bhat in police custody. Their killings raise serious concerns and questions as we see this pattern repeated over the last year. We also bring to your notice that in the last three months the figures of young innocents targeted by the troops has reached over 100. The EU has the moral responsibility to play a role to stop the killings of innocent unarmed Kashmiri youth”.
 
Meanwhile, the ICHD chairman, Ali Raza Syed, in his statement said that appalling human rights abuses and atrocities had been committed against the civilians. He said that according to recently published Human Rights report, between 1989 and 2010, the number of Kashmiris killed at the hands of Indian security forces stood at 93,274. He said that the actual number could be much higher considering the lack of the right to information and speech in the Kashmir. The facts and figures show the reality. For example, there had been 6969 custodial killings, over 107,351 children had been orphaned, 22,728 women had been widowed and 9920 women had been gang raped during the period. He said that thousands of Kashmiris had been arrested on fake charges and a large number of houses and other buildings were devastated.

He said that the discovery of 2900 unnamed mass graves in the three districts of the occupied territory in the recent years had proved that all of these innocent people were killed in the different fake encounters by the Indian army. “The current situation shows that freedom movement of Kashmir is taken up by the Kashmiri youth and they are not ready to accept continuation of occupation of their homeland by the Indian forces. The youth started to protest in the streets over the Indian atrocities but Indian forces started to conduct crackdown against the innocent and peaceful demonstrators” said Ali Raza Syed.

Campaigning for truth and justice

by: Marjan Lucas 

Before engaging in support to the lobby for truth & justice of the families of the disappeared in Kashmir, I was working – for over a decade – with the survivors of the Srebrenica-genocide of 1995 in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Anno 2012, so almost two decades after the war in Bosnia, most of the ca. 10.000 disappeared and killed persons have been identified by name, place of birth, sex and age, profession and hobbies. Years before, their remains were dumped in, and revealed from mass graves on the slopes of Bosnian forests but their families could finally bury them in the cemetery of Potocari, close the small town of Srebrenica and in the region where the massacre took place in 1995, despite UN surveillance. The Potocari Cemetery is nowadays an open-air-memorial-centre: a place to mourn the dead, and to reconcile the living. 
Families of the Bosnian disappeared persons persisted in their struggle for truth and justice despite political discouragement, if not harsh obstruction, by national and international power enters. However, international donors, e.g. the Dutch government, granted millions of dollars to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) for DNA analyses to identify of the remains of the victims in Srebrenica and set up judicial investigations. The survivors’ truth- & justice campaign did produce results indeed.

 The Kashmiri families of the disappeared, organised in local NGO’s as e.g. the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), show a likewise persistence and courage in their own specific struggle for justice and truth. Kashmiri human rights defenders and civil society activists reported to have revealed 2.000 unmarked graves, in detail described in ‘Buried Evidence ‘(2009) and ‘Facts Underground’ (2008). They want the remains in these unmarked graves to be identified and to analyse if, and if yes how many, of these corpses are the remains of the 8.000 enforced disappeared as previously registered by lawyers as Advocate Parvez Imroz c.s. 
And yes, of course: the plight of the Bosnian victims is a different story then the one of the relatives of the enforced disappeared persons in Kashmir. But what is similar for all of them is their need to know the truth and that perpetrators of crimes will not be simply set free. And that a past and presence of fear and injustice, can be transformed in a future of justice and peace.

But, how far from that future are the Kashmiri i.c. the families of the disappeared and the human rights defenders who revealed the mass graves? A milestone is that India acknowledges indeed the existence of the thousands of bodies in the thousands of unmarked graves. However: India strongly refuses identification. Why? What does India fear for? And can Europe play a role? This week here in Brussels, a seminar is planned to elaborate on this issue. 

Let’s meet again then. 
As for now, I wish you well and hope (and am sure) you enjoy this unique event! 

The Kashmir Council-EU organised a seminar in Brussels titled, “Reflections on Kashmir” in collaboration with the association of Belgian doctors. A large number of doctors, intellectuals and activists, amongst others, participated in the seminar. Addressing the seminar, the chairman of KC-EU, Ali Raza Syed said that six decades of repression could be termed as a long time for any nation struggling against the foreign occupation bent upon committing human rights violations as abductions, rapes, torture, murders and disappearances. He pointed out the fact that the mutilated dead bodies were found everyday in the Indian Held Kashmir while girls and boys were disappeared in routine. He said that the discovery of the unmarked mass graves had shown to the world the real face of the Indian democracy. He lamented the fact that there was no serious response from the international community, which was silent despite knowing that 800,000 strong army was committing grave human rights violations in Kashmir.  He especially pointed out the fact that there was no health facilities for the people that are wounded by the Indian forces. He requested the doctors of the Belgium that they should send their delegation to the Indian Held Kashmir to see the real situation of the people that are facing torture every day. He said that the announcement by the Secretary Interior of India concerning the reduction of 25% army in Kashmir was nullified by an Indian commander. He said that the Indian state had made itself fully discredited.  
The ICHD showed a documentary film that reflected the miserable conditions of the people of Kashmir. Ali Raza Syed said that this film was a documentary proof of the life conditions in Kashmir. He said that the purpose of the seminar was to highlight the health related problems that were faced by the people of Kashmir. He told the participants about the One Million Signature Campaign launched by the ICHD by saying that the campaign was an effort to assemble the international opinion in favor of bringing the Kashmir issue on the agenda of European Union. 
Earlier, the coordinator of the Doctor’s Association, Dr. Adnan Farooqi said that their objective was to raise the awareness of the international community about the grave human rights violations in Kashmir. He said that their main focuse was the health issues espeically the lack of the emergency held to the wounded. He said that their concern was that the situation in Kashmir could bring danger to the entire region since the patience of the Kashmiris, in the wake of the horrendous misdeeds by the Indian forces, was getting thin. He said that it was very important to convey the message to the Indian state that their voice in the favor of the Kashmiris was being heard in the nook and corner of the world. 

The ICHD organized protest demonstration on 29th of March 2012 in front of the European Parliament. The protest demonstration was organized to emphasize upon the Indian authorities that the state repression shall not be able to silence the voice of the freedom lovers of the world. The demonstration gathered the participants in front of the Indian embassy in which, a number of human rights organizations and peace activists demanded that the Kashmiris should be allowed to exercise their right to self determination under international laws that are well recognized by the state of India. The political organizations of the Sikh community of India, the Sikh Khalsa and Babar Singh Khalsa movement also joined the demonstrators. 

Addressing the participants, the chairperson of ICHD, Ali Raza Syed urged the United Nations to take serious notice of the massive human rights abuses especially extra-judicial killings being committed by the Indian troops in Held Kashmir. “Indian forces are involved in massive human rights violations and it is our duty to inform the world community about the violations”, he said. He welcomed the visit of the UN Special Rappoteur, Christof Heys on the fact finding mission to India. He urged that the UN representative should meet people from every walk of life including aggrieved families, students, women, youth, labor, journalists, thinkers and artists. He pointed out towards the fact that the socio-political and economic life in Kashmir had been crippled. He said that the presence of the representatives of the Sikh movements proved that Indian government was trying to put the facts under the carpet. “Indian state is an imperialist state that is suppressing the will of people through force, which is not acceptable to any human rights activist”, he said.     

The demonstration was supported by a number of the members of the European Union. The participants raised slogans to condemn the atrocities committed by the Indian forces. One participant said that the Indian military forces were involved in the most horrible anti-human activities in Jammu and Kashmir. Another participant said that Indian state was using established black laws to protect their military personals that were perpetrating horrible atrocities including murders and rape, as the tool of suppression. He urged the UN to pressurize the Indian government to repeal the black laws. 

While talking to the sizeable media representatives, Ali Raza Syed urged European Union to send fact finding mission to India without any delay and play an affective role for peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue.