OIC Reaffirmed its Principled Support to the People of Kashmir

Kashmiri American Council

New York. September 24, 2010. “The phenomenon of unstopped and unpunished barbarities is being witnessed in Kashmir. The irony is that the impunity that is thus being granted to the violator of human rights is not in the context of a new dispute. It is being allowed to arise and to persist in a territory which, under international law, is not part of any member state of the United Nations and whose status is yet to be determined through a free and impartial plebiscite under supervision and control of the United Nations” said Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director, Kashmiri American Council/Kashmir Center while speaking during the “Annual Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM)” of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) which was held today at the United Nations headquarters. The OIC has 57 member countries. Dr. Hamrokhon Zariff, Foreign Minister of Tajikistan, chaired the Meeting. The OIC Secretary General and the Under-Secretary General of the United Nations attended the Meeting. The Kashmiri delegation included: Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, the Prime Minister Azad Kashmir; Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Mr. Masood-ur-Rehman, and Mr. Abdul Hameed Shaheen.

The CFM reiterated the need for a peaceful and negotiated settlement of all conflicts in the Islamic world and reaffirmed its principled support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the realization of their legitimate right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

The CFM expressed concern at the recent and ongoing indiscriminate use of force and gross violations of human rights committed in Indian Occupied Kashmir by Indian security forces which have resulted in killing of scores of innocent and unarmed civilians as well as injuries to hundreds of others including women, children and elderly. The OIC emphasized the need for full respect of human rights as well as importance of taking all requisite steps to provide relief and comfort to the Kashmiris. It further called upon India to allow international human rights groups and humanitarian organizations to visit Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier the OIC Contact Group on Kashmir condemned the continual arrests and detentions of the Kashmiri leadership and called upon Government of India to release all political prisoners, including Kashmiri leaders without delay. It urged India to put an end to the suffering of the people of Jammu and Kashmir by repealing all laws that violate the basic freedoms and human rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Dr. Fai warned that far from seeking to rectify its atrocious human rights record, India has legalized its state-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir. It has given its occupation forces powers to shoot to kill and the license to abuse the people of Kashmir in whatever ways they like in order to suppress the popular movement for self-determination. These tactics, Fai said have no military purpose whatsoever. Their only imaginable purpose is to terrorize a people into submission.

Fai emphasized that as long as the international community allows India to hide its atrocities in Kashmir, there would be no end to the ever-increasing gross and consistent violations of human rights in that unfortunate land. As long as India is successful in isolating Kashmir from the rest of the world, they will not only continue to trample the Kashmiris’ basic rights and freedoms but will also block all peaceful processes for the restitution and restoration of these rights and freedoms.

Fai told the Council of Foreign Ministers that the solution of Kashmir is both urgent and vital. It has a far more populous and strategic area than other trouble spots in the world. The pain felt by the people of Kashmir is no less devastating than that felt by the people of Haiti. The nuclear tinderbox in South Asia is no less threatening than in Korea. The mass rapes by the Indian occupation forces are no less humiliating in Kashmir than in Bosnia. The torture and imprisonment in Indian Occupied Kashmir is no less intense as it is in Myanmar. In fact the pain, suffering and humiliation in Kashmir s intensified because the people of Kashmir have been under alien occupation for over 63 years.

Fai urged the OIC to persuade Government of India to initiate the Kashmir centric CBM’s, including: (i). Demilitarizing of Kashmir; (ii). Allowing the people of Kashmir to freely express their political views; (iii). Releasing all political prisoners, including Shabir Ahmed Shah & Mian Abdul Qayyum; (iv). Repealing draconian laws; and (iv.) Allowing Kashmiri political leaders to travel abroad.