I - Address to Center for Strategic and lhiernational Studies in Washington, D.C.
Kashmir bleeds to satisfy India's arrogance of r The APHC has invariably championed peace and reniid violence to resolve the 52-year-old Kashmir mnfliet Negotiations, not bullets, are the keys to ending ithaite's tragedy.
The APHC applauds free and fair elections like the s in Bast Timor as an instrument of democracy, but fiulla has never allowed the same in Kashmir. Every ysstion there has been polluted by fraud, intimidation, or me nigeing. Even Indian officials have conceded that indietent in moments of candor.
The three parties ineluctably implicated in the Kashmir conflict are Kashmiris, India and Pakistan, but te former is the principal player. The only negotiating fnrniula that promises success is not the failed bilateral approach, but a tripartite arrangement with Kashmiris, lnia and Pakistan as equal partners in the enterprise assisted by an outside mediator. No Kashmir solution that fail to command the consensus of the Kashmiri people ean succeed. Moreover, since the Kashmir issue is about ils future destiny, it affronts even a primitive sense of faimess to exclude Kashmiris from participating in eharting their own fate ... The international community should demand that the genuine Kashmiri leadership be included in all Kashmir negotiations.
Both India and Pakistan are equally accountable in excluding Kashmiris from 50 years of futile negotiations and manipulating Kashmir like a pawn on a chessboard. The self-determination right of Kashmiris under international law cannot be bargained away by any third party
During the last Indian parliamentary elections, approximately 97 per cent of Kashmiris boycotted the polis (despite threats from the Indian military) to voice resistance to India's illegal occupation ... Why has the international community remained silent over Kashmir? Is India practicing nuclear blackmail? Is the life of a Kashmiri worth less than the life of an East Timorese or Kosovar Albanian? By what moral yardstick?
Kaşhmiris have never been plagued by internecine communal hatreds and violence like that witnessed in Kosova, Croatia, Bosnia, East Timor and Northern Ireland. We welcome Pandits as our own, and grieve over their suffering in refugee camps. The spirit of intolerance is foreign to the Kashmiri culture. India should recognize that it will never capture the hearts and minds of the Kashmiri people and should disengage from Kashmir.
Otherwise, Kashmir will remain a dangerous canker in India's body politic with incalculable consequences .. (Reported by Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director, Kashmiri American Council)
Il - Interview to Indian Express
Indians are in a self-congratulatory mood over Kargil. We know that Indians are not going to settle the Kashmir issue themselves. The US had acted as a persuasive force on Pakistan in Kargil and tomorrow it may do it to India too.
Pakistan's Foreign Secretary ... claimed Pakistan will take care of the Kashmiri cause. We had rejected that stand. APHC has its own agenda and the world will ultimately realise that we will not be dictated by anyone.
.. The Government of India perceives us as Muslims and therefore does not want to talk to us. It has no problems in talking with rebels in the Northeast and that too in some other country. But it has categorically rejected any proposal for talks with us. Indian politicians whip up hysteria over Kashmir. And why not? Some of them have regained power through propaganda over Kargil. That is why nobody is sincere in resolving the Kashmir problem realistically.
... I am questioning Indian's sincerity in claiming Kashmir as an integral part of India. Have they ever bothered to know why Kashmiris overwhelmingly boycotted elections recently? Why did Farooq Abdullah put all the Hurriyat Conference leaders behind the bars after that embarrassing election? ... Both the central and state leadership had been claiming "the situation in Kashmir has improved. Does the boycott reflect normalcy? ...
The armed struggle in Kashmir started in 1989. India has ever since been answering Kashmiri resentment with bullets and suppression. It is but natural for Muslims all over the world to react to the plight of Kashmiris ...Personally, many Kashmiris may not like the intervention of mercenaries but we have no choice. People generally believe that these mercenaries are there for liberating them from their oppressors. The security forces may tell you that the local people are against mercenaries. This is not true ...
... Indian Government .. , has to give up the bullet-for-bullet policy and volunteer for a dialogue with Kashmiris as it is doing in the Northeast. Only this will enable us to prevail upon outsiders to keep off Kashmir. Till then, just as we have no choice in getting out of the clutches of the Indian armed forces, we have no role in either inviting or throwing out the foreigners.
... We have to choose between an India which is suppressing and humiliating Kashmiris with its military power and a Pakistan that has been supporting our movement at every step. The Indian might is crushing our bodies, soul and egos and, at such a time, even a word of sympathy from Pakistan is soothing. (Source: The Indian Express, 6 November, 1999)
Release Hurriyat Leadership Shahabuddin's Letter to PM, 8 Nov., 1999
The arrest and detention of the entire leadership of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, except its Acting Chairman Mirwaiz Mohammad Umar Farooq, is an ominous development. By blocking all possibilities of negotiations, this development will create a political void and add to the alienation of the Kashmiri people, specially the youth. This will have an impact on the intensity of insurgency in the Valley.
In the larger interest of the country, I request you to release the APHC leadership and extend an unconditional invitation to them for negotiations.
I also request you to advise the State Government to process the Report of the State Committee on Autonomy and begin a public debate on the issue.
Shujaat Bukhari On Detention of Hurriyat Leadership
With the arrest of three of its members on 1 November, the entire leadership of the separatist All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) except its acting chairman, Mirwaiz Mohammad Umar Farooq, has been put behind bars, a situation akin to that of 1990 when no separatist leader was out leading to confusion on the political front.
Soon after Mirwaiz Umar Farooq's press conference at the APHC headquarters, a police contingent swooped on the office and arrested the much-wanted leaders of the Hurriyat including the prominent Shia clergyman, Agha Syed Hassan, Bashir Ahmed Tota and Shahidul Islam.
Police were on the lookout for these members for quite some time ... However, Mirwaiz Farooq was not touched ... Mirwaiz Farooq, who is also the head priest of Kashmir with a massive following in downtown Srinagar.
Around 19 of the Hurriyat leaders, including its chairman, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the spokesman, Abdul Gani, Mohammad Yasin Malik, Moulvi Mohammad Ansari, Javed Ahmed Mir, are lodged in Jodhpur jail in Rajasthan and some others, including G. M. Hubbi and Qazi Ahádullah are in Udhampur jail.
Putting almost the entire leadership in jails by the Farooq Abdullah Government is seen as an unexpected development ... Even during the elections the Hurriyat leaders were given absolute freedom to carry on with their anti-election campaign which ultimately "bore fruit" and resulted in very low turnout. ... By virtue of which the NC resorted to bogus-voting. When the party got all the seats the Hurriyat leaders are in jail" said one opposition leader. (Source: The Hindu, 6 November, 1999)
