|
Kashmir:
Putting the right foot forward
Gary
Fitleberg
One
small step for man…One giant leap for mankind.
Amicable
talks between rivals are taking place between the Indian government
and separatists over hotly contested and disputed Kashmir.
India’s
government and separatist leaders are forging forward to resolve a
conflict that has mired the regional stability in a positive move.
Both have called for an end to the conflict and these are the first
direct talks since an insurgent revolt against Indian rule in the
disputed territory began 15 years ago.
The
2 ½ hours of talks between members of a moderate faction of the All
Party Hurriyat Conference and India’s hawkish Deputy Prime
Minister Lal Krishna Advani, were seen as a good start on what is
likely to be a very difficult effort to revive one of the world’s
most dangerous conflicts.
“It
was agreed that the only way forward is to ensure that all forms of
violence at all levels should come to an end,” said a
joint-statement read by Abdel Ghani Bhat, a veteran separatist
leader in the Indian-controlled port ion of Kashmir.
“The
talks were amicable, free, frank and fruitful,” the statement
said, “and it was agreed that the next round of discussion would
take place in the latter part of march.” During the talks, Advani
agreed to review a list of political prisoners being held in Indian
jails without trial.
“The
[Kashmir] delegation stressed that an honorable and durable solution
should be found through dialogue,” according to the official
statement. The Kashmiri leaders are scheduled to meet with Indian
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who agreed to start peace talks
with neighboring Pakistan over Kashmir and other issues.
Both
India and Pakistan have laid claim to Kashmir since first going to
war over it in 1947, when Britain granted them independence. They
have fought three of their four wars over the Himalayan territory
and came to the brink of a fourth one there after India blamed
Pakistan for a December 2001 assault on India’s Parliament
building that left 14 people dead, including the five terrorists who
launched the attack.
In
the last decade and a half, over 60,000 people, most of them
civilians, have been killed in fighting the armies of Pakistan and
India and between India and separatist militants. The militants seek
independence for the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir or its
merger with Pakistan.
The
competing claims between India and the separatists are so entrenched
that expectations were low for the groundbreaking talks, however,
despite the fact the mood after the meeting was surprisingly
upbeat.
A
burst of optimism also followed the recent agreement that led to the
Vajpayee meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. The two
nations, however, could still not reach an agreement on which one
should begin the further negotiations set for March. Pakistan wants
the foreign ministers to start the talks. India wants only
lower-level bureaucrats at the table in t he opening round.
Musharraf
stressed that he would seek to help resolve the long-standing
dispute at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
according to a report by Associated Press.
“I
strongly believe that we must not live perpetually in enmity.”
Musharaf stressed.
In
Pakistan, which controls roughly one-third of Kashmir, members of
the Al l Party Hurriyat Conference – the main umbrella group for
the Kashmiri separatist organizations – are deeply skeptical of
the talks in India and suspect they are a tactic to further split
the alliance.
Pakistan’s
government backs hard-line member Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
“Unless
human rights abuses are stopped by Indian forces in Kashmir, these
talks will not lead to any positive result,” Farooq Rehmani of the
Hurriyat ’s Pakistan chapter said in Islamabad, the Pakistani
capital.
The
five Kashmiri leaders who took part in the talks are from
non-militant organizations within Hurriyat, a deeply divided
coalition of about two doze n religious and political groups.
Their
leverage is limited over the radical militants, most of them fueled
b y Islamic extremism, who are waging a what India calls a terrorist
war. Several India militant groups threatened to retaliate against
anyone who took part in the talks.
In
late 2002, the Indian government held the fairest elections in its
portion of Kashmir since the separatist insurgency began in 1989,
sparked largely over a fraudulent election.
The
new Chief Minister of Indian Kashmir, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, formed
a coalition government based on the promise of “a healing touch”
that he said would include the release of political prisoners and
curbs on security forces.
One
of the main targets for reform was special police Special Operations
Group, a paramilitary force the Kashmiris accuse of kidnappings,
torture and murder.
“Nothing
has been done. No action has been taken against the abuses by this
Special Operations Group,” Rehmani said, adding that innocent
civilians continued to disappear at the hands of the Indian security
forces.
Rehamani
stated it would take at least six months for Kashmiris to assess
whether India’s government had taken the necessary steps, such as
releasing political prisoners and returning security forces to
barracks, to make peace possible.
Rehmani
also added that while it talks with the Hurriyat faction, India
should also try to build confidence in the process and not simply to
isolate other members of the alliance. Two important steps would be
to open a bus route between Srinagar, the summer capital of
Indian-held Kashmir, and Muzaffarabad, the capital of the
Pakistani-controlled portion, and to make sure the people can easily
obtain visas to travel the route.
Rehmani
said militants, who India claims are supported by Pakistan, might
agree to a cease fire if India curbed human rights abuses, withdrew
several hundred thousand soldiers patrolling the territory and
stopped holding prisoners without trial. A call for peace in Kashmir
is essential for regional stability. There is no time like the
present.
Gary
Fitleberg -- Contributing Editor, the Kashmir Telegraph
-- is a Political Analyst specializing in International
Relations with emphasis on Middle East affairs. | 
