Mounting a Campaign for Kashmiris' Right of Self-Determination
By Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai
Secretary General
World Kashmir Awareness
Washington, DC
The purpose of this article is to provide friends of Kashmir with a plan to mount an educational and awareness campaign in support of self-determination in Kashmir and to enlist the support of the Members of Congress, Think-tanks, NGO’s and media to persuade India and Pakistan to include Kashmiri leadership in any future dialogue that will lead to the settlement of the Kashmir dispute.
Your objective should be to build support for the active involvement of the United States to help resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspiration of the people and United Nations Security Council resolutions. Your strategy has to be a part of a process to build momentum and create opportunities to show the Members of Congress how active support for a referendum in Kashmir can further the interests of the United States in the region of South Asia. Your challenge will be to provide them with specific ideas for future policy actions and decisions. The ideas must be sound, concrete, tangible and realistic. Your meeting with them must be more than educational. It must move forward the political dialogue that can ultimately lead to more extensive tripartite discussions between India, Pakistan and Kashmiri leadership.
The United States Administration must realize that:
(i). The Kashmiri people could be instrumental in providing a ‘way out’ of this cycle of violence and period of uncertainty. Kashmiris are an educated people. They have a recorded history of five thousand years. They have a skilled workforce. The Jammu & Kashmir itself is rich in natural resources including an abundance of fertile land and vast waterways which could produce enough hydroelectric power to support not only Kashmir but parts of India and Pakistan as well.
(ii). Given a chance, Kashmiris could be instrumental in encouraging peace and stability not only in the subcontinent but in Afghanistan as well. As many experts of international relations now publicly say, the key to peace and stability in Afghanistan lies in Kashmir.
(iii). One cannot deal with the tensions between India and Pakistan without simultaneously addressing the bone of contention of these tensions – that is Kashmir.
Think tanks and NGOs play a critical role in shaping the foreign policy of the United States, through studies, backgrounders, issues memorandums, seminars and conferences. They are looked at by foreign policy agencies as powerful sources of information on many complex issues.
A timely editorial or opinion piece or article can influence the outcome of a debate and encourage a shift in policy. By generating stories on Kashmir, you will draw the attention of the foreign policy agencies and ultimately persuade them to take interest in the Kashmir cause.
You can be sure that the Indian lobby, much larger than ours, has wasted no time in voicing their opposition to what they term ‘separatism,’ 'fundamentalism’ and ‘terrorism.’
Our efforts have to be designed to provide information that supports the positive themes that strengthen our position. Remember, never exaggerate the events. Why to exaggerate when our story is true in the first place! We must combat the Indian disinformation campaign by providing direct, positive and substantive information.
The recent rhetorical volley between India and Pakistan at Ufa, Russia provided the backdrop for heightened concern of the US, Russia and China over the recent tensions between India and Pakistan. That prompted a direct involvement of those world powers in supporting a lowering of hostilities between two disputants. Call it mediation or facilitation or deeper engagement, it really does not matter. In reality, it was the third party involvement in general and multiple telephone calls by our Secretary of State John Kerry in particular, that brought India and Pakistan together at Ufa, Russia. We have to insist that the United States must persuade both India and Pakistan to include Kashmiri leadership in the future talks so as to reach the final settlement of the Kashmir dispute.
- gnfai2003@yahoo.com
