People’s march toward UN office on September 13 is significant and merits examination
Dr Syed Nazir Gilani
The call by Hurriyat Conference (G) that the people of Kashmir Valley should march toward UN office at Sonawar on September 13 is significant and merits examination. A non-violent and an all accommodative mechanism for the resolution of Kashmir dispute is contained in the jurisprudence of UN resolutions on Kashmir.
There may be questions in regard to interpretations and any interpretation that would mean a prejudice to the right of self determination could be easily reconciled in accordance with the principle of self determination as defined in the UN Charter. More so the people of Kashmir were not duly part and present at the UN discussions, therefore, they retain the right to rebut any part of argument that does not represent their best interest as ‘equal people’ in any determination. Kashmiri people will also seek to benefit from the progress in international law that has taken place since 1948.
A common Kashmiri is faced with a serious dilemma that the political discipline of Hurriyat is not the same as it stood on July 31, 1993 under a common political charter (constitution). It is fractured and as a consequence has been hit by incursions from India and Pakistan. The incursions from Pakistan have been self serving and destructive according to the mind set in power. As against Indian position the government of Pakistan continues to claim that it is offering political, diplomatic and moral support to the people of Kashmir and would continue to do so. If that were the case Hurriyat would not have closed down its first embassy (Awareness Bureau) in Delhi. It (all constituents) would not have been trapped into competing with each other to gain the favour from Delhi or Islamabad for sending its members (at times irrelevant) to be a part of various delegations at the UN Human Rights Commission and Sub Commission (now Human Rights Council) in Geneva, to other UN meetings in New York and contact group meetings of OIC. There came a point when the Kashmiri phrase at these international forums became visible as sponsored, trivial and suspect. It started losing the sympathy constituency and interest of the various countries and NGOs present at these forums. And ultimately Islamabad could not keep its nerve and cope with the ever increasing demands of individual representations of Hurriyat in the delegations at UN.
Today there is hardly any appearance from Hurriyat at these forums and those who are being chosen from PaK to give it a Kashmiri semblance or to wink at India to say that we can still cause you (India) a heartache are far remote from understanding the suffering of the people and harm caused to the habitat. These replacements have human desires to see Geneva and be known to have been at the UN. The man who holds the purse and others who hold the authority (NGOs with Consultative Status) to accredit them to appear at the UN forums and speak call the shots. The loyalty of Kashmiri delegate remains divided between the purse and the NGO. And there is always a non-Kashmiri who has been authoring the speeches of these ‘seemingly Kashmiris’ who come to represent Kashmir at the UN in Geneva, New York, OIC or any other forum.
The OIC Contact Group on Kashmir after its December 1994 Casablanca, Summit has turned into a non-serious routine where a clerk in a ‘department’ in Islamabad decides who would be the Hurriyat chair this time for the purposes of an invitation and who are the other names to be listed for invitation. It does not remain any honour to be invited by OIC Contact Group nor does it stand as a stigma if one section of Hurriyat or any other genuine Kashmir does not seem to have received an invitation from OIC. Member countries represented on the Kashmir Contact Group know about these mechanics and it is part of diplomacy that if Kashmiris don’t seem to have a grievance, why a diplomat should wear his heart on his sleeve for them.
One would wish all luck and safe sojourn to all protesters to the UN office in Sonawar on September 13. It is once again important to point out that the members of UNMOGIP stationed at Sonwar or in Islamabad have a different and restrictive mandate than to address the situation in Kashmir. Under the circumstances UNMOGIP would receive a memorandum from our leaders (protesters) and it would be far less effective than the meetings that the JKCHR leadership arranges with the Chief of UNMOGIP during their visits to Srinagar and Islamabad. JKCHR leadership had an hour long meeting with Major-General Kim Moon Hwa (Republic of Korea) Chief of UNMOGIP in Islamabad in October last year. He had flown from Srinagar the same morning for this meeting.
The UN march raises one fundamental question in regard to the understanding and judgment of Hurriyat leadership and all others outside Hurriyat. Why is it that Kashmiri leaders remained silent and failed to discharge their trust towards their people when they joined Pakistan for 30 years and 11 months from November 1965 to August 1996 when Kashmir was never agitated at the UN for about three decades? There is no harm in seeking all manner of support from Pakistan or any other member nation of UN for self determination. Even the Governments of Jammu and Kashmir and PaK have a duty to support the cause of self determination. What is, however, wrong and the world has sadly started smelling it, needs to be urgently addressed. The world has started to believe that all activities of the Kashmiri leadership (Muslim) have a domineering influence of sponsorship. Once they revert to a correct ‘wisdom compass’ there would be many Gandhis in India who would line up for their rights movement. The world under UN resolutions and UN Charter is already pledged to their right of self determination.
I join Syed Ali Shah Geelani in his call that we should ‘celebrate Eid with austerity’ and help the flood affectees in Pakistan. Unfortunately there is no genuine connect between the people of Kashmir and the people of Pakistan. Kashmiri leaders have been reaching out to the people of Pakistan through Government channels. This time there is a serious trust deficit between the people and the Government of Pakistan. International community has expressed a similar trust deficit in the present Government. JKCHR offers to help the Kashmiri leadership if they wish to connect with the people of Pakistan.
Author is London based Secretary General of JKCHR – NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations. He can be mailed at dr-nazirgilani@jkchr.com.
