[Reader-list] International Call to end Humanitarian Crisis in Jammu and Kashmir

[Prabhakar Singh]

These terrorists have a very wide support base.
Prabhakar



----- Original Message ----
From: Vedavati Jogi <vedavati_jogi at yahoo.com>
To: kashaffairs at yahoo.co.uk
Cc: achatterji at ciis.edu; reader-list at sarai.net; Shubh.Mathur at stockton.edu
Sent: Wednesday, 13 August, 2008 5:11:40 AM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] International Call to end Humanitarian Crisis in Jammu and Kashmir

Dear Champions of Human Rights,
 
I request all of you to please go to Shrinagar, spend some time with our dear muslim terrorist brothers and then only you publish such type of calls.
 
Vedavati

--- On Wed, 8/13/08, Kashmir Affairs <kashaffairs at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

From: Kashmir Affairs <kashaffairs at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: [Reader-list] International Call to end Humanitarian Crisis in Jammu and Kashmir
To: reader-list at sarai.net
Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 12:24 AM

Justice Navanethem Pillay, High Commissioner
Dr. Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner
Ms. Gay McDougall, Independent Expert on minority issues
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland

Subject: Humanitarian Crisis in Jammu and Kashmir

August 12, 2008


Dear Justice Pillay, Dr. Kang, Ms. McDougall:

We
write to bring to your attention the profound humanitarian crisis
continuing in the Kashmir Valley due to the ongoing blockade of the
Srinagar-Jammu highway by religious nationalist groups from India. This
has resulted in severe shortages in the Kashmir Valley of food and
other vital provisions. We are reliably informed that petrol and
essential medical rations, including blood, are in critically short
supply, as well as newsprint, and that communication services and
infrastructure are severely disrupted.

The situation in Jammu,
where the Muslim minority is facing violence on a scale that can be
described as ethnic cleansing, is alarming. The Government of India and
the military and paramilitary forces have shown themselves unable
and/or unwilling to take any effective action, either to end the
blockade or to stop the violence against Muslims in Jammu. Meanwhile,
military and paramilitary forces have opened fire on
counter-demonstrators in Kashmir, using live bullets and mortar. A
communiqué from the Kashmir Valley states that:

"The
situation here on ground is that essential commodities have started
getting dried up, diesel is already out of stock and petrol at its
verge of end. The people here are very much concerned as if the same
continues for next few days there will be nothing left to eat with the
people of Kashmir. And on the other side the Army is supporting the
mobs who have allegedly beaten up the drivers stranded on the national
highway. The drivers who were beaten up reported that they asked Army
to help them but all went in despair and the Army people in return
handed them over to the mobs. The target is only the Kashmiri Muslims
and some sources from Jammu say that it is the outsiders who have come
to Jammu and are doing such attacks on the Muslims and it is quite
evident that the Hindu fundamentalist groups viz. BJP, RSS VHP, etc.,
are all sponsoring the planned attacks onto the Kashmiris like it was
done in Gujarat. Here in Kashmir we feel the history seems to be being
repeated by the Hindu fundamentalists who had earlier in 1947 killed
about 250,000 Muslims in Jammu."

On
August 11, 2008, approximately 100,000 Kashmiris, including fruit
growers and others gravely affected by the blockade, marched toward the
Line of Control toward Pakistan markets in protest. They were met with
gunfire and tear gas from the military and paramilitary forces, and
Sheik Abdul Aziz, an All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader, was shot
dead, intensifying the situation. Police reports stated that three
others were killed and over 200 injured, enervating health systems
already low on supplies. Other sources we contacted stated that as many
as 18 others may have been killed in Kashmir on August 11. By early
evening of August 12, as we write you, reports stated that as many as
twelve persons were killed in Kashmir on that day as armed forces fired
on demonstrators. Other reports stated that civil society groups,
students, and labor unions participating in non-violent civil
disobedience and peaceful protests are being targeted by the forces, as
curfew conditions prevail.

The
Srinagar-Jammu highway is the only land route linking the Kashmir
Valley to India and the sole conduit for essential supplies as well as
for exporting horticultural goods, which are among the Valley's chief
products. News updates on the state of the blockade and situation can
be found from leading Kashmiri newspapers, which are online at
www.greaterkashmir.com; www.kashmirtimes.com; www.risingkashmir.com;
www.etalaat.com/english/.

About
95-97 percent of the population of the Valley is Muslim, while Muslims
are a minority in India. This has made Kashmir the target of
increasingly aggressive campaigns by Hindu nationalist groups since
1947, despite guarantees of autonomy written into the Indian
Constitution. The Government of India has failed to take measures to
prevent these campaigns, consisting of marches and demonstrations, and
culminating in the current blockade. Since 1989 there has been an armed
pro-independence struggle in Kashmir, together with other and
non-violent movements for self-determination. Indian counterinsurgency
operations have resulted in grave abuses of human rights with social,
economic, psychological, political, and environmental consequences,
which meet the definition under international law of crimes against
humanity. To a population suffering the effects of nineteen years of
armed conflict, the economic crisis caused by the blockade comes as the
last straw.

We
urge that you respond expeditiously to this situation in accordance
with the mandate to uphold human rights as enshrined in the charter of
the United Nations.

Recommendations:
1. The Government of
India should immediately end the economic blockade and ensure that
goods and services, including emergency medicaland food supplies, can
move in both directions along the Srinagar-Jammu border.
2. The
Government of India should open the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, a
promise repeatedly reiterated by successive governments of India and
Pakistan, though never implemented. This would ensure that the current
crisis situation is not repeated as well as mark a concrete step
forward in addressing injustices and the peace process.
3. Take immediate action to stop the violence against
the Muslim minority in Jammu and bring those responsible to justice.
4.
Put an end to ongoing human rights abuses by Indian forces and
pro-India militias as repeatedly promised by the Indian Prime Minister
and expected of democratic governments.
5. Take steps for a
long-term resolution of the conflict by beginning talks with all
sections of the Kashmiri leadership and civil society.
6. Take steps
to hold the Indian state accountable under the provisions established
by the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, Constitution of India, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and International Laws and
Conventions.

We, the undersigned, are academics, social
activists, writers, filmmakers, artists, lawyers, and concerned
citizens. Our work and conscience connects us to Kashmir and its
people. We hold no political affiliations. Please do not hesitate to
contact us if we may be of further use.

Contact persons:
Dr. Angana Chatterji,
Associate Professor, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology,
California Institute of Integral Studies, Office: 001-415.575.6119,
Mobile: 001-415.640.4013, E-mail: achatterji at ciis.edu.
Dr. Haley Duschinski, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, Ohio University, Office: 001-740.593.0823, E-mail:
duschins at ohio.edu.
Dr. Shubh Mathur, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, Richard
Stockton College of New Jersey, Office: 001-347.404.2238, E-mail:
Shubh.Mathur at stockton.edu.


Yours Sincerely,
Signed [Institutional information noted for affiliation purposes only]:

Dr.
Angana Chatterji, Associate Professor, Department of Social and
Cultural Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies, San
Francisco

Dr. Haley Duschinski, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, Ohio University

Dr. Shubh Mathur, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, Richard
Stockton College of New Jersey

Dr.
Paola Bacchetta, Associate Professor, Department of Gender and Women's
Studies, and Director, Beatrice Bain Research Group, University of
California, Berkeley

Dr. Srimati Basu, Associate Professor, Department of Gender and Women’s
Studies (and Anthropology), University of Kentucky

Medea Benjamin, Cofounder, Global Exchange, San Francisco, and
CODEPINK

Dr. Purnima Bose, Associate Professor, Department of English, Indiana
University

Dr. Jeff Brody, Professor, College of Communications, California State
University Fullerton

Adem Carroll, Chair, Muslim Consultative Network, New York Disaster Interfaith
Services

Dr.
Lubna Nazir Chaudhry, Assistant Professor, School of Education and
Human Development, State University of New York, Binghamton

Huma Dar, Doctoral student, Department of South and South East Asian Studies,
University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Geraldine Forbes, Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of History,
State University of New York Oswego

Dr. Sidney L. Greenblatt, President, Central New York Fulbright Association

Dr. Sondra Hale, Professor, Department of Anthropology and Women's Studies,
University of California, Los Angeles

Dr. Lamia Karim, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of
Oregon-Eugene

Professor Ali Kazimi, Department of Film, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University

Dr. Omar Khalidi, Aga Khan Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Rafique A. Khan, Community Development Planner, CRA, City of Los Angeles

Tasneem F. Khan, Kashmir Relief, Los Angeles

Dr. Amitava Kumar, Writer and Professor, Department of English, Vassar College

Rabbi Michael Lerner, Chair, The Network of Spiritual Progressives, Berkeley

Barbara Lubin, Executive Director, Middle East Children's Alliance,
Berkeley

Dr. Sunaina Maira, Associate Professor, Department of Asian American Studies,
University of California, Davis

Dr. Lise McKean, Senior Research Specialist, Learning Sciences Research
Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago

Dr. Abdul R. JanMohamed, Professor, Department of English, University
California, Berkeley

Dr. Swapna Mukhopadhyay, Associate Professor,
Graduate School of Education, Portland State University

Dr. Richa Nagar, Professor, Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies,
University of Minnesota

Dr. Vijaya Nagarajan, Associate Professor, Department of Theology and Religious
Studies, University of San Francisco

Annie
Paradise, Doctoral student, Department of Social and Cultural
Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco

Dr. David Naguib Pellow, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of
Minnesota

Faisal Qadri, Human Rights Law Network

Dr.
Mridu Rai, Associate Professor, Department of History and Whitney and
Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale
University

Dr. Cabeiri Robinson, Assistant Professor,
International Studies & South Asian Studies, Jackson School of
International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle

Dr. Sabina Sawhney, Associate Professor, Department of
English, Hofstra University

Dr. Simona Sawhney, Associate Professor, Department of Asian Languages and
Literatures, University of Minnesota

Dr. Kalpana Rahita Seshadri, Associate Professor, Department of English, Boston
College

Professor
Richard Shapiro, Chair, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology,
California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco

Murtaza Shibli, Editor, Kashmir Affairs, London

Dr. Magid Shihade, Visiting Scholar, Middle East/South Asia Studies, University
of California, Davis

Snehal Shingavi, Doctoral student, Department of English, University of
California, Berkeley

Dr. Ajay Skaria, Associate Professor, Department of History and Institute of
Global Studies, University of Minnesota

Dr. Nancy Snow, Associate Professor, S. I. Newhouse School of Public
Communications, Syracuse University

Dr. Rachel Sturman, Assistant Professor, Department of History & Asian
Studies, Bowdoin College

Dr. Fouzieyha Towghi, Visiting Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies,
University of California, Berkeley

Sandeep Vaidya, India Solidarity Group (Ireland)

Saiba Varma, Doctoral student, Department of Anthropology, Cornell University

Feroz Ahmed Wani, Social activist

David Wolfe, Human security and conflict resolution specialist

Pei
Wu, Doctoral student, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology,
California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco



Cc:

Ms. Helene Flautre,
Member, European Parliament
Chair of the European Parliament's Sub-committee on Human Rights

Mr. Geoffrey Harris
Head of Human Rights Unit, European Parliament

Ambassador Richard A. Boucher, Assistant Secretary
Timothy Fitzgibbons, India Desk
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs United States Department of State

Mr. David J.
Kramer
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
United States Department of State

Ms. Felice D. Gaer
Chair, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom

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