While India Promotes Half Truths on UNSC Resolutions Kashmiris Observe Black Day
By Riaz Haq
CA
The people of Indian-Occupied Kashmir (IOK) observed Black Day on the 70th anniversary of India's brutal Army occupation on the 27th of October 2017. This comes amid continuing attempts by India and its supporters, including Professor Christine Fair, to justify Indian occupation with half truths about UN Security Council Resolutions calling on India to let the Kashmiris decide their future through a plebiscite.
Indians allege that Pakistan violated the UNSC Resolution 47 (1948) calling for a plebiscite by refusing to withdraw its army from the territory of the state. What they don't acknowledge is that it was superseded by UNSC Resolution 80 (1950) that called for progressive demilitarization on both sides of the ceasefire line to limit the deployment of the number of Indian and Pakistani troops as determined by the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan.
Here's an excerpt of UNSC Resolution 80 passed in March, 1950:
"Calls upon the Governments of India and Pakistan to make immediate arrangements, without prejudice to their rights or claims and with due regard to the requirements of law and order, to prepare and execute within a period of five months from the date of this resolution a program of demilitarization on the basis of the principles of paragraph 2 of General McNaughton proposal or of such modifications of those principles as may be mutually agreed"
Here's the text of paragraph 2 of General McNaughton's proposal to UNSC:
"There should be an agreed program of progressive demilitarization, the basic principle of which should be the reduction of armed forces on either side of the Cease-Fire Line by withdrawal, disbandment and disarmament in such stages as not to cause fear at any point of time to the people on either side of the Cease-Fire Line. The aim should be to reduce the armed personnel in the State of Jammu and Kashmir on both sides of the Cease-Fire Line to the minimum compatible with the maintenance of security and of local law and order, and to a level sufficiently low and with the forces so disposed that they will not constitute a restriction on the free expression of opinion for the purposes of the plebiscite."
On the "Northern Areas" through which China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passes, the Norton proposal referred to by UNSC Resolution 80 gives Pakistani authorities the right to administer it until there is a plebiscite under UN supervision. It says as follows:
"The "Northern Area" (including Gilgit-Baltistan region through which CPEC passes) should also be included in the above program of demilitarization, and its administration should, subject to United Nations supervision, be continued by the existing local authorities (Pakistani authorities)."
In a book titled "United Nations Security Council and War: The Evolution of Thought and Practice since 1945", authors Vaughan Lowe, Adam Roberts, Jennifer Welsh and Dominik Zaum explain this as follows:
"(After passing UNSC Resolution 80 of March 14, 1950, calling for progressive demilitarization based on reduction of forces on either side of the CFL) UN Representative Frank P. Graham proposed a twelve-point demilitarization plan on 4 September 1952. However, there was disagreement over the specific number of forces to remain on each side of CFL (Ceasefire Line) at the end of the period of demilitarization--between 3,000 and 6,000 on the Pakistan side and 12,000-18,000 on the Indian side. The subsequent proposals on demilitarization by Swedish diplomat Gunnar Jarring also came to naught. At the same time, India began to harden its position on the UN-supervised plebiscite which it had committed to following the withdrawal of Pakistani forces from the Pakistani side of the CFL "
It's clear from the details described above of what transpired after UNSC Resolution 80 that "India began to harden its position on the UN-supervised plebiscite which it had committed to following the withdrawal of Pakistani forces from the Pakistani side of the CFL (Ceasefire Line)".
India's brutal military occupation of Kashmir today is not only illegal but also immoral. It violates multiple UNSC resolutions on Kashmir and makes a mockery of the pledge made by one of India's founding fathers and first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the people of Kashmir and to the world.
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