Indian lies on Kashmir

After more than two months have passed and more than 90 civilians killed, the UN has finally begun to take notice of India’s latest brutal crackdown in Kashmir with something more than perfunctory statements. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein was – unusually for the organisation – bold in assessing the situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir. He said it was essential that an independent international mission be sent there since matters had only got worse and criticised India for not yet inviting outside observers to Kashmir. He made mention of excessive use of force by Indian security officers against civilians, which is again something the UN has usually avoided doing in the case of Kashmir.      It is a sign of just how much violence India has inflicted on the Kashmiri people that even a cautious organisation like the UN, which shies away from confronting powers with influence, has felt compelled to speak out. That it needed to do so is perfectly illustrated by India’s response to Hussein’s comments. Its External Affairs Ministry released a statement which is breathtaking in its mendacity. It said that any “unrest” – read resistance to an illegal occupation – was exacerbated by terrorism exported from Pakistan, even though there have been no terrorist attacks in India over the last two months or more and the protests against the Indian occupation have been homegrown and led by civilians with the power to do little more than throw stones and chant slogans.

Switching the topic to Pakistan seems to be the only card India has left to play but it has been dealt a weak hand. The External Affairs Ministry tried to draw a comparison between Indian-occupied Kashmir and Azad Kashmir, saying the former has a democratically-elected government while the latter is controlled by a Pakistani diplomat. He ignored the fact that Azad Kashmir had parliamentary elections earlier this year in which all mainstream political parties took part and which was fought mainly over local issues while elections in Indian-occupied Kashmir are held down the barrel of a gun and which Kashmiri political parties mostly boycott. Even if the Indian criticisms of Azad Kashmir were true, Hussein pointed out that Pakistan has already sent the UN Human Rights Commission a letter inviting it to send observers to the region while India has been conspicuously silent. India clearly has something it wants to hide from the rest of the world, as Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN Tehmina Janjua pointed out when she said Indian claims of using restraint are laughable. It is not only the UN’s duty to investigate India’s disproportionate use of force but, as Janjua said, to finally live up to its responsibility of enforcing UN resolutions promising Kashmiris a right to determine their own future.