Articles
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Page 50
Waging Peace
Kashmir Peace Conference
The American Kashmir Council and the Humanitarian Lawyers Association held their 10th annual international conference on Capitol Hill from July 23 to 26. Those in attendance included Pakistan’s Ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani, former Ambassador Dr. Maliha Lodhi, Mushahid Hussain, a former minister in Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s administration, and others.
No one from India attended the conference. With Washington now treating India as “a superpower,” New Delhi apparently has little reason to address the Kashmir dispute.
Welcoming attendees, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, executive director of the Kashmiri American Council and Kashmir Center, explained that the peace conference sought to encourage a peaceful resolution to the disputed territory in which the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir are paramount. The objective, he said, is to bring peace in the spirit of reconciliation, not confrontation; equality, not discrimination; and hope, not despair.
The conference was held in the Cannon House Office Building and attended by many members of Congress, including Reps. Jim Moran (D-VA), Dan Burton (R-IN), John Conyers (D-MI), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Joseph Pitts (R-PA) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY). Presentations were made by academics, scholars, journalists, political leaders, diplomats and human rights activists from Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan, Britain, the U.S., Canada and other parts of the world. Many speakers called upon President Barack Obama to appoint a special envoy for the Kashmir issue.
Speeches, as usual, called for the implementation of the U.N. resolution on Kashmir calling for a referendum. Attendees agreed that President Obama’s administration recognizes that the 62-year-old dispute over Kashmir and Jammu is a major irritant for peace in the subcontinent and a potential powder keg between the neighboring nuclear powers of India and Pakistan.
—M.M.Ali
