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Wednesday 24 June 2009

Barrister A. Majid, Tramboo Chairman of ICHR Kashmir Centre.EU when speaking to a large crowd of demonstrators assembled in front of the Indian embassy to launch strong peaceful protest condemning the continuous serious crimes committed by the Indian occupation forces in Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir in particular ghastly gang rapes and the murders of Aasiya Jan aged 22 years and her sister-in-law, Niloufer Jan aged 17 years, including the attempted cover-up by the pro-Indian administration for the purpose to hide its face behind the heinous crimes.

Drawing on European Parliament resolutions and evidence of Indias own internal problems with nationalists Barrister Tramboo delivered a damning assessment of the dire straits that India has found itself in over it’s conduct in, and ambitions for, Kashmir. "After sixty-two years of enforcing a military occupation on the people of Kashmir, one of the government of India’s worst fears is now being realised.  Nourished by memories of years of violent repression in which torture, molestation and enforced disappearances have become commonplace the people of Kashmir are reacting only with non-violent protests.  India must realise that despite the huge effort that they put into repressing the people of Kashmir the people are no closer to accepting their occupation than they were in 1947 when they first occupied the land.

The horrific discovery of unnamed mass graves in Kashmir has resulted in the 27 countries of the European Parliament adopting an urgency resolution in which they call upon India to investigate all allegations of enforced disappearances whilst also deploring the lack of access for UN Special Rapporteurs.  It is both telling and unacceptable that India has yet to cede to any of the demands set forth in the mass graves resolution.  If India has nothing to hide, has nothing to be ashamed of, then why have they not yet allowed investigations into these grizzly discoveries?  

Why is India prepare to suffer the embarrassment that they suffer through their continued presence in Kashmir, through their stubborn and blind attempts to control its people?  The answer lay in the distorted politics of the last sixty-two years; particularly the distorted politics of the last twenty years.  In recent decades a plague of weak coalitions, patronage and corruption has swept through the Indian political system placing little or no emphasis on understanding and addressing the Kashmir conflict.  The day that India opens its eyes and realises that they cannot subjugate the people of the great land of Kashmir the embarrassment and waste associated with this futile pursuit will be put to rest.  

India needs to be told that it is the Kashmiri people who are paying the price for this intransigence, this foolish and deadly policy, over Kashmir.  With and estimated ninety-thousand dead, eight thousand enforced disappearances and almost countless false arrests and imprisonments, with torture and curfews and every day norm; how can the government of India turn a blind eye to its conscience? Is it not about time that Indians across the country (be it ordinary citizens civil society, NGOs, politicians etc) take to the streets to protest against the gross Human Rights violations that their government is committing in Kashmir; condemn and denounce publicly these atrocities by the active engagement of their more than half a million well equipped military and para-military forces; pronounce as Indians - no more murdering and raping of defenseless Kashmiri Men, Women and Children which has only brought shame to India and its citizens; and declare that we (Indians) stand with our Kashmiri brothers and sisters in their pain and suffering and in their just struggle for their political right for self-determination."

All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader Azad Kashmir - Pakistan Chapter, Syed Faiz Naqshbandi while addressing the protesters said that Indian must implement the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir. It is a surprise that India is trying to become a member of the security council of which Indian is refusing its resolutions on Kashmir. He further said that India must lift the house arrests of APHC Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and cancel detention orders of APHC leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Syed Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Jammu Kashmir Liberation leaders and others. He urged the international community to impress upon India for immidiate stop to its ongoing systematic human rights violations. Further he said people of the Kashmir will continue its struggle till the achievement of right to self determination.

After this impassioned speech a Memorandum was presented to the Indian Ambassador, the text of which is as follows:

Ali Raza Syed from the Advisory Council to KC.EU delivered the following memorandum to the Embassy of India in Brussels during the protest;

His Excellency, Dr. Manmohan Singh Prime Minister of India

Through

His Excellency, Mr. J. Bhagwati Indian Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg

Condemning and deploring outrightly the gang rapes and murders of two Kashmiri women namely 22-year-old Aasiya Jan and her sister-in-law, 17-year-old Niloufer Jan on 29 May at Nagbal near Shopian, including the attempted cover-up by the pro-Indian administration for the purpose to hide its face behind the heinous crimes.

To-day the Diaspora of Jammu & Kashmir and the sympathizers gathered here to launch strong peaceful protest condemning the continuous serious crimes committed by the Indian occupation forces in Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir in particular ghastly gang rapes and the murders of Aasiya Jan aged 22 years and her sister-in-law, Niloufer Jan aged 17 years.

Recalling all of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council for upholding the right to self- determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir;

Rejecting any negotiations on the future of Jammu and Kashmir under the framework of the Indian constitution;

Recalling all of the resolutions passed by the Organisation for Islamic Conference in Casablanca in 1993

Recalling the report adopted by the European Parliament on 24 May 2007 in which the European Parliament upheld the Kashmiris right to self-determination

Recalling the urgency resolution of the European Parliament on Kashmir’s nameless and mass graves;

Condemning the unabated serious crimes, torture, extra-judicial killings, custodial deaths and disappearances, fake encounters, arbitrary detentions, destruction of houses, shops and villages, and rape as instruments of suppression by the Indian Government through its military, paramilitary forces and mercenaries; outside) including the APHC leadership and recent;

Now Calling upon the Prime Minister of India:

to implement the United Nations Security Council resolutions on the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people;

to uphold the European Parliaments resolution on mass graves in Kashmir

to withdraw the occupational forces from the territory of Jammu and Kashmir;

to put an end to its state terrorism, genocidal repression, ethnic cleansing; rape and gang-rape, torture, and degrading treatment of Kashmiri men, women and children;

to release all political prisoners and detainees;

to ensure that the Kashmiri expatriate leadership can travel to Jammu and Kashmir; and to allow access to international human rights monitoring groups and humanitarian organizations to visit the state of Jammu and Kashmir, for impartial investigations of human rights violations.

http://www.kashmircentre.org/Kashmi...