Bosnia Outrages Invite Comparison With Half-Century-Old Plight of Kashmir

By Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai

The barbaric situation in Bosnia and Kosovo has outraged the world and caused regrets that the enormous toll of human lives was not averted by timely action at an earlier stage. The failure of the international community can be explained but not denied.

In another part of the globe, however, Indian-held Kashmir, atrocities of a similar pattern have been, and are being, perpetrated with no fear of a corrective international response. To date, no one power or combination of powers has blown the whistle.

Kashmir, located in the heart of Asia, is surrounded by Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and India, and has an area of 86,000 square miles—more than three times the size of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg combined. It occupies a larger area than do 87 existing sovereign countries and has a population of 13 million, making it more populous than 114 independent member states of the United Nations.

When the Kashmir dispute was first brought to the United Nations, the Security Council, with the firm backing of the United States, urged that the people of Kashmir be given the right of self-determination to decide the future status of their homeland. At that time, the Soviet Union did not dissent from it.

Later, because of its Cold War alliance with India, the Soviet Union blocked every Security Council resolution calling for implementation of the settlement plan.

Since 1990, Indian forces have been engaged in a sustained campaign of slaughter, rape, arson and destruction. This state terrorism has resulted in more than 60,000 deaths. The intervention of the international community is needed to bring the genocide in Kashmir to a quick end. Initiation of a political dialogue between the Kashmiri leadership and the governments of India and Pakistan will set the stage for a democratic and peaceful solution.

We in the United States can do the following to bring the Kashmir issue to the forefront:

1. We should make it clear to the U.S. administration that it is implausible to believe that India and Pakistan will either cap or renounce their respective nuclear genies after they have escaped the South Asian bottle unless the chief source of antagonism between the two—Kashmir—is resolved.

2. We should propose that the U.S. government take an active role in finding a lasting settlement on Kashmir. It is obvious that no settlement can last if it is not based on justice for the people of Kashmir and recognition of their inherent rights.

The failure of the international community can be explained but not denied.

3. The governments of India and Pakistan should include the Kashmiri leadership in the peace process, and should a stalemate arise, both India and Pakistan should be willing to invite or accept mediation by an impartial and neutral international agency. As Northern Ireland required the participation of Sinn Fein in negotiations to succeed, Kashmir is no different.

4. We should urge President Clinton to appoint a special envoy on Kashmir.

5. The United States can initiate an intra-Kashmiri dialogue at a location outside South Asia with the participation of the leadership of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC), the Kashmiri Pandits, the Dogras, the Buddhists, and the prominent political parties of Azad Kashmir (the region of Kashmir on the Pakistani side of the “line of control” separating Indian- and Pakistani-administered areas of Kashmir). The Indian government must be persuaded to issue travel documents to the leaders of the APHC.

Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai is executive director of the Kashmiri-American Council in Washington, DC.