Kashmir Needs the Immediate Attention of the International Community
By Abdul Jabbar Memon
Los Angeles, CA
I am into my fifth year of posting as Consul General of Pakistan in Los Angeles. During my stay in the United States, I have been able to better understand what is so special about the United States that it continues to inspire people around the world. Being the leading military and economic power of the world are important factors, but in my humble opinion it is the values of freedom, democracy and human dignity the United States has tried to promote that has endeared it to the people of the world and earned their gratitude.
American values have inspired people around the world and today American values have become universal values. People around the world, regardless of their race, religion and nationality, want to see these values implemented in their own countries.
These universal values, which all freedom-loving people cherish, are under a serious threat in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. While India is illegally occupying Jammu & Kashmir and brutally oppressing its people since 1947, Indian State brutality in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir has reached new highs during the last one year.
On 5 August 2019, the Indian Government scrapped Articles-370 and 35-A of its Constitution, which had granted special status to Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Indian actions, allowing people from outside the State of Jammu & Kashmir to get domicile of the State and also giving them the permission to buy property in a disputed territory, are blatant violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which expressly forbids an occupying power from transferring its own civilian population into a disputed territory.
The purpose of all the Indian steps in the Occupied Jammu & Kashmir, is to change the demographic composition of the local population and convert Muslims into a minority. These steps are clearly a violation of International Law and the UN Agreements. Ever since 5 August 2019, Indian Government has converted Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir into the largest prison of the world with gross human rights violations perpetuated by the Indian State.
The persecution of Kashmiris by the Indian Government is part of implementation of the agenda of the Bhartiya Janta Party, governed by leaders that are the product of Hindu supremacist mother ship, Rashtriya Swayamsaevak, also known as RSS. Ever since the BJP Government came to power in 2014, killings of Muslims, Dalits and Christians by extremist Hindu mobs in India has become a new norm.
Mr Narendra Modi, Indian Prime Minister, is using India’s increasing economic power, to fast track implementation of RSS ideology, which is to eliminate minorities in India. The calculation of Indian Government is very clear; that western Governments because of their trade relations with India, will ignore human rights violations in India in general and in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir, in particular.
The question before all of us who love freedom and believe in standing up for moral values is whether we will continue to ignore oppression of Kashmiris in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir, or the world will take notice. Ignoring the plight of Kashmiris is not an option for the world. Kashmir is a flashpoint between Pakistan and India and both the countries are nuclear powers. If the world does nothing to stop the Indian assault on Kashmir and its people, chances of a direct military confrontation between the two nuclear armed states are very real.
It is of utmost importance that in the interest of world peace the international community should start looking at the Kashmir issue and the human rights abuses in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir as a humanitarian crisis. It is only when the world will start looking at India, beyond the lenses of trade and business, that it will be ready to put enough pressure on India to stop human rights violations and give the Kashmiris the right of self-determination which was promised to them through UN Security Council Resolutions and the pledges made by none other than India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru.
Kashmir today is a burden on the conscience of the international community. The international community, particularly the United States, must not allow India to get away with its oppression of Kashmiris. History tells us that appeasing an oppressor only emboldens the oppressor and leads to further problems in future; appeasement at Munich led to World War II. Let us learn from history.
(The author is Consul General of Pakistan in Los Angeles, California)
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