On 14 June, UN’s High Commissioner for
Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, released first ever report on the “human
rights situation” in Jammu and Kashmir
from July to April 2018 based on “allegations of widespread and serious human rights violations were
received, notably excessive use of force by Indian security forces that led to
numerous civilian casualties”. The Office of the High Commissioner of Human
Rights (OHCHR) Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein “called on Indian security forces to
exercise maximum restraint, and strictly abide by international standards
governing the use of force when dealing with future protests, including ones
that could well occur this coming weekend”. He also advised that “It is
essential the Indian authorities take immediate and effective steps to avoid a
repetition of the numerous examples of excessive use of force by security
forces in Kashmir”. UN secretary general
Antonio Guterres had backed the human rights commissioner. (Duly highlighted
portions of the report are included for proliferation).
The OHCHR commissioner also urged the
UN Human Rights Council to consider establishing a commission of inquiry to
conduct a comprehensive independent international investigation into
allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir. The report sought repeal of
the Armed forces (Jammu and Kashmir) special Powers Act, 1990 (AFSPA)
“urgently” and also “immediately remove the requirement for prior central
government permission to prosecute security forces personnel accused of human
rights violations in civil courts”.
The report is somewhat critical of Pakistan
as well however, Pakistan has welcomed the report and the recommendation for
the establishment of the “Commission of Inquiry”.
In
an irritated response reflecting India’s panic, Indian Ministry of External
Affairs spokesperson Ravish Kumar termed the report as “fallacious, tendentious
and motivated”, violating Indian sovereignty and “a selective compilation of
largely unverified information . . .
overtly prejudiced and seeks to build a false narrative. “DilipSinha
(former vice-president to UN Human Rights Council) maintained that it is a
mischievous report coming from the obsession with Kashmir by the OIC. Indian Army Chief General BipinRawat slammed
the United Nations report on alleged human rights violations in Kashmir,
dubbing it as “motivated”. India even
disparaged the report in UNSC as well as on 9 July debate Indian deputy
permanent rep to UN described the same as “reflecting the clear bias of an
official who was acting without any mandate whatsoever and relied on unverified
sources of information; a document that was not event found fit to be
considered by the membership of the forum where it was submitted”.
Reacting to official response from
India, the UN human rights commissioner’s spokesperson Rupert Colville has said
that they were “deeply disappointed by the reaction of the Indian authorities,
who dismissed the report as ‘fallacious, tendentious and motivated’ without
examining it and responding to the very serious concerns about the human rights
situation in Indian-administered Kashmir as laid out in the report”. He also
maintained that since the release of the report, there has been a steady stream
of articles in the Indian media which cast doubt about the credibility of the
Kashmir human rights report. Indian
media has been terming the report as “Nefarious conspiracy”. “Pakistan-authored report”. “Fallacious”,
“mala fide” etc. he said that the human
rights chief’s office was “disturbed by the sustained attempts to distract and
divert the focus away from the human rights violations on the both sides of the
Line of control”. Colville asserted that
it was “not about politics”, but “about human rights of millions of people in
Kashmir”.
On
India’s accusation about the credibility of the information, the spokesperson said that there were 388
footnotes which were sourced from “India’s parliament – as well as the Supreme
Court of India, the Ministry of External Affairs, the Jammu and Kashmir
Legislative Assembly, the Jammu and
Kashmir State human Rights commission, the ministry of Defence, the chief of Army Staff and even a former Vice
President”. He also dispelled any impression of Mr Zeid’s contact/meeting with
a Canada-based Imam of Pakistani decent namely Zafar Bangash as alleged by
Indian media. He also chided claims of
Indian media about photography of the High commissioner with three individuals
from AJK taken outside the Human Rights council room in Geneva as a proof of
ISI’s involvement in the report. Denying
any such collusion, Zeid’s spokesperson said, “this is totally untrue”.
Based
on above, there is a a need to launch an extensive discussion in all the
strides of media on OHCHR report and boiling sit in IOK:-
• India’s illegitimate occupation of
Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) for over seven decades has been a perpetual
source of gross human rights violations and atrocities against innocent Muslims
of IOK. In order to suppress the
legitimate voices of Kashmiri populace and forcibly crush freedom movement,
India has positioned over 700,000 heavily armed and specially trained Armed
personnel in the valley since 1989. The
devilish army since its placement in IOK has resorted to unprecedented human
rights violations. Since 1989, over
100,000 (by some reports nearly 120,000) Kashmiris have died during their
struggle for self determination. Over
120,000 rape cases at the hands of Indian armed forces have been reported since
1989, which may be a friction of
unreported incidents.
• IOK has been used by Indian deep state
as “an experiment table” since last many decades. Recent crude and cruel
experiment was “imposition of Governor Rule” to facilitate the Indian LEAs to
further butcher the innocent Kashmiri people under the umbrella of AFSPA.
• Moreover, since the cold blooded killing
of Burhan-ud-din Wani in last July, IOK has been witnessing an unprecedented
movement and open rebellion against
illegitimate occupation of India. The intensity of anti India protests and
brutal handling of the situation have also instigated intense debates in India
as well. Some sane voices have started
questioning Hindu extremist BJP’s strategy to con J&Kashmir. Some have even boldly ack that “the Kashmir
crisis is a comprehensive collapse of
India’s secular project as a whole”.
• OHCHR report on Kashmir is first ever
report of UN on gross violation of human rights and needed to appreciated,
highlighted and debated. Panic in Indian camp is a vivid verification of the
inhuman situation in IOK.
• The unresolved status of Kashmir issue
is somber reminder to the world that Kashmiri people are deprived of the their
fundamental rights at the hands of so-called biggest democracy (rather
mobocracy) of the world.
• Indian panic is also evident from
blatant and indecent comments/personal attack on UN High commissioner for Human
Rights ZeidRa’ad al-Hussein, who has remained a thorough, refined and unbiased
diplomat of highest category throughout his career.
• Moreover, Indian allegation of Pakistan
sponsored report, is a desperate Indian move (on the lines of much trumpeted
infiltration from across the LOC etc) to hoodwink the world and malign
Pakistan.
• Indian Government’s claim that the
report was “fallacious” and “a selective compilation of largely unverified
information” is shameful on grounds that it was the Indian Government which had
turned down repeated requests of the UN High commissioner for Human rights for
unrestricted access to Jammu and Kashmir.
• India is also wrongly projecting the
report as violation of Indi’s sovereignty and integrity. UN Human Rights council was created by the
General Assembly in 2006. The council
has 47 members elected by the UNGA for staggered three-year terms on a regional
basis. India has been a member of the
Council for two terms till 2017. On
being re-elected for a second term India’s Ambassador to the council.
AsokeMukerji emphasized that India’s focus will be to make the UN human rights
system more effective through constructive approach. The council setup the
process of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) under which the human rights record
of each of the 193 UN member-countries is peer-reviewed every four years. Under the UPR process, the recommendations
made by the council members during the review of each country’s record are
given to a “troika” of countries drawn through a lot. India has been a member of the Troika in the
past.
• In September 2017, India’s human rights
records were examined under the UPR process. Among the issues raised during the
UPR were continued discrimination, stigmatization and violence against Dalits;
restrictions on free speech and on the work of human rights defenders; attacks
on religious minorities; reports of excessive use of force by security officers, including in
Jammu and Kashmir, combating impunity and ensuring accountability and delays in
judicial proceedings. Out of the 250 recommendations, India had accepted 152
and took note of the rest.
• India undertook to fulfill twenty-year
old promise that it would ratify the UN Convention Against torture. India, having been an active member of the UN
Human rights Council, having submitted to the UPR process on three occasions
and as a member of the Troika made recommendations to other countries for
improving their human rights situations, it is strange that the government now
asserts that the OHCHR report on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is a
violation of Indian sovereignty and
integrity.
• Moreover, in her ostrich approach to the
situation in IOK, Indian government has been using every tactic to brandish the
indigenous and spontaneous movement of Kashmiri people as foreign sponsored. India
is deliberately using every tactic to
prolong the subjugation of IOK people.
• Kashmiris want an end to Indian
occupation. India must understand that it has, military and politically, failed
to control Kashmir. It has certainly not won any hearts and minds among
Kashmiris. The use of force to perpetrate fear as a tactics has miserably
failed to tame Kashmiris who have reacted with courage and determination. It is
the 5th generation of the Kashmiris is sufferings and almost all agree that the
issue in Kashmir is political and needs political solution. High handedness and
brutalities of the forces in the occupied valley have literally alienated the
population from the Indian state.
• OHCHR report is reflection of an
awakening conscience of the World community, which seems to have heard the
“incessant echoes wailing crane cries from Kashmir.
