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Alarming HR violations in IHK: EU MPs call for trade, travel sanctions on India

By Agencies
September 15, 2019

By News Desk

ISLAMABAD/SRINAGAR: The Members of the European Union Parliament on Saturday called for trade and travel sanctions on India over the alarming human rights situation in Indian Held Kashmir (IHK).

The Co-Chair of the Friends of Kashmir Group in the EU Parliament, Richard Corbett, called for utilising all possible means to mount pressure on India to ease the military curfew in occupied Kashmir. He proposed the imposition of trade sanctions on New Delhi and restrictions on the travel of those involved in committing human rights violations and acts of terrorism in IHK.

Corbett was speaking to a conference jointly organised by Friends of Kashmir Group in the European Parliament and the Jammu-Kashmir Self-Determination Movement at the European Parliament in Brussels. The Friends of Kashmir Group also proposed that a resolution be presented in the EU regarding the situation in the occupied Valley. Last month, members of this group had visited Azad Jammu and Kashmir. During the visit, the EU members had a chance to meet the victims of unprovoked attacks from India on the Line of Control (LoC) and the relatives of those who had lost their lives in these attacks. The group also met a wide range of civil society members including journalists, physicians, teachers, students and lawyers to collect firsthand information about the area. They called upon the Indian government to provide a similar kind of access in IOK so as to independently verify claims about lack of food, medicines and other items in the occupied Valley.

Those who spoke at the conference included Anthea McIntyre, Shaffaq Mohammed, John Howarth, Irena Von Weise, Theresa Griffin and Raja Najabat Hussain.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan was also present on the occasion and welcomed the decision of the European Parliament to hold a debate on the situation in occupied Kashmir. He said that the decisions reflected growing concern in Europe over the deteriorating human rights situation in IHK and warned about prolonged siege turning into genocide.

He said all the developments in the Indian occupied territory fit into the definition and criteria of genocide and called for swift action by the international community to intervene and prevent a catastrophe.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament (EP) is set to debate an urgent resolution for the horrible conditions including human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK) more than a month after New Delhi scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s special status and put the valley on a lockdown.

The European Union (EU) high representative for foreign affairs and security policy Federica Mogherini is scheduled to deliver a detailed policy statement on the Kashmir situation during the EP General Assembly to be held in the French city of Strasbourg on September 17.

The EP confirmed that Mogherini who is also the EU Commission’s Vice President would deliver the Kashmir statement following which the general assembly is expected to debate on an urgent conflict resolution in occupied Kashmir during a full plenary session.

It is noteworthy that this is the second time in the EP’s history that it would open debate on the Kashmir issue the last time being in July 2008 when it discussed mass graves in Indian occupied Kashmir.

It is therefore another foreign policy milestone for Pakistan given the efforts of the Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora to raise their voices in the EU particularly the Kashmir Council EU (KC EU).

Meanwhile, Nobel laureate Malala Yusufzai lamented over the ongoing lockdown in occupied Kashmir, saying on Saturday that she is asking the leaders at the United Nations General Assembly and beyond to work towards instilling peace in the valley. She said that the global leaders should listen to the voice of Kashmiris and help children go back to school.

In a series of tweets, Malala said that in the past week she has spent time speaking with people living and working in occupied Kashmir, including journalists, human rights lawyers and students. “I wanted to hear directly from girls living in Kashmir right now. It took a lot of work from a lot of people to get their stories because of the communications blackout. Kashmiris are cut off from the world and unable to make their voices heard. #LetKashmirSpeak,” she tweeted.

She said that the girls told her that the best way to describe the situation in the valley right now is ‘absolute silence’. “We have no way of finding out what’s happening to us. All we could hear is the steps of troops outside our windows. It was really scary,” Malala quoted one of the Kashmiri girls as saying.

She said that she is deeply concerned about the reports saying that 4,000 people including children, who have been arbitrarily arrested, students out of school more than 40 days and girls who are afraid to step outside their homes.

Malala shared the account of another Kashmiri girl lamenting her ordeal. The school girl said that she feels purposeless and depressed as she can’t go to school. “I missed my exams on August 12 and I feel my future is insecure now. I want to be a writer and grow to be an independent, successful Kashmiri woman. But it seems to be getting more difficult as this continues.”

“People speaking out for us adds to our hope. I am longing for the day when Kashmir will be free of the misery we’ve been going through for decades.”

Meanwhile, three Nobel Prize laureates have demanded of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to rescind its award to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for blatant basic human rights violations in the occupied Kashmiri, attacks on minorities in India and his role in horrific massacre of Gujarat.

In their joint letter addressed to Foundation, Mairead Maguire, Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman, and Shirin Ebadi expressed their serious reservations, saying that they were deeply disturbed to discover that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would be giving an award to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi later this month.

“Under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, India has descended into dangerous and deadly chaos that has consistently undermined human rights, democracy. This is, particularly, troubling to us as the stated mission of your foundation is to preserve life and fight inequity, they added. The situation in the state of Assam and Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir were cause for grave concern as well.

The organisation, Genocide Watch, has issued not one, but two alerts for India in these regions.

In Assam, 1.9 million Indians have been stripped of citizenship; in Kashmir, since August, 800,000 Indian armed forces have kept eight million Kashmiris without phone or internet service for the last month, they added. They further said because of these human rights abuses, children in occupied Kashmir from Kindergarten to college were unable to attend school.

They also referred to the attacks on minorities, specifically Indian Muslims, Christians, and Dalits. Since the BJP, Prime Minister Modi’s party, came to power in 2014, the use of organised mobs to respond to alleged sectarian ‘offenses’ with violence has undermined the rule of law, so frequently that the Indian Supreme Court warned that these horrendous acts of mobocracy could not be permitted to inundate the law of the land, they added quoting a report of Human Rights Watch.

The Nobel laureates further maintained that scholars inside and outside of India had never cleared Prime Minister Modi of his involvement in the horrific 2002 massacre of Gujarat.

As a result, Modi was banned from entering the United States, the UK, and Canada for 10 years until he acquired diplomatic immunity by becoming India’s prime minister.

To be sure, his role in that crisis as the then chief minister of the state of Gujarat cannot be ignored, they stressed. They requested the Foundation to rescind its award to Modi because by doing so, they would send a clear and powerful message that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation took its aim of equity, justice, and human rights for all seriously and that it was committed to promoting these values in a consistent fashion.

While, Tony Llyod, a Labour Party’s member of UK Parliament, has said that they want to see a change in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K), a change that respects people's basic human rights.

“These are the things we would expect in any part of the world. It's what we expect for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and it's what we expect of the Indian government,” the British parliamentarian said in his twitter message.

Tony Llyod further said that the situation in Kashmir worried many people around the world. There were many people (Kashmiris) who had been desperately worried about the future of their families in the occupied Kashmir. He termed the situation in the occupied valley a very damaging after the Indian government stripped the special status of occupied Kashmir which came after huge military deployment in the valley.

The UK parliamentarian said that reports indicated people lost their lives, blinded with pellet guns, women were assaulted and restrictions imposed upon the movement of people, but little news came out of Kashmir. “The world began to take notice and say to Indian government look, these are the basic human rights violations,” he said adding, these human rights violations got to be stopped.

Meanwhile, global human rights watchdog Amnesty International demanding an end to continued lockdown in occupied Kashmir has urged India to let the people of the territory speak.

In a video posted on Twitter Amnesty International has exposed gruesome crimes being committed by Indian forces personnel against the people of occupied Kashmir. The video was posted with a caption that said ‘The Kashmir blackout is over 40 days old. 8 million people are under lockdown. In the world’s most militarised zone.’

The video provides a glimpse on the crisis in occupied Kashmir that has gripped the Muslim majority territory since August 5 when India repealed special status of the territory. Cell phones and internet remain disconnected. Families unable to speak with loved ones. The government in near total control of information, the video says.

It adds, “All this amidst reports of disrupted emergency services, mid-night raids, torture, tear gas, rubber bullets, pellet guns, detention of thousands of Kashmiris including doctors, journalists and political leaders’ activists.

The human cost of this blackout cannot be ignored. Lift the blackout. Let Kashmir speak, the Amnesty International urges India in the video.