AMP Report – September 20, 2019
Australian Green Party urges the govt. to help stop Indian aggression in Kashmir
CANBERRA, Australia: During her speech in the parliament, the Greens’ senator for New South Wales Dr Mehreen Faruqi has said seven million people were suffering under India curfew in Jammu and Kashmir and there was the threat of a severe humanitarian crisis in the disputed region, the News Tribe reported.
She expressed these views during her speech in the Parliament. “Imagine seven million people in a landlocked valley confined to their homes, their phones dead and their internet blocked,” she said. “They’re up against the nationalist government of mighty power, its army, and its media,” Faruqi remarked.
She also pointed out that it was now over a month since the Indian government unilaterally revoked Kashmir’s autonomy and plunged Jammu and Kashmir into complete darkness, blocking all access to the outside world. “Indian Prime Minister Modi’s intervention goes against India’s own constitutional guarantee and promises to the people of Kashmir. It’s a travesty. Come October, Jammu and Kashmir are set to come under the control of the government in New Delhi—and the people of Kashmir have had no say.”
The Senator said the people of Kashmir have a right to determine their future and they have an absolute right to self-determination.
“Let’s be clear: the Kashmiris have never submitted to Indian sovereignty. The government of India has effectively instituted mass detention of Kashmiris by rushing in troops to join the half a million already stationed there,” she said.
“Some media outlets would have you believe that everything is fine. But, if everything is fine, why is Kashmir crawling with troops and subjected to one of the strictest curfews the valley has ever seen? Why have thousands of Kashmiris been detained? Sadly, this is not new to Kashmiris, who have lived under oppression for decades and who now live in fear.”
It should frighten all of us when one of the world’s largest democracies is prepared to suppress all dissent from minorities.
Faruqi said under the nationalist BJP government, the dissolution of Kashmir as a state meant the rights that empowered autonomy of the Kashmiri legislature in administrative matters, including defining permanent residents who could buy the property and work in the region, are gone.
She urged the Australian government to call on the Indian government to respect the human rights of the people in Kashmir, withdraw military forces, end the mass lock down and the Kashmiri’s right to self-determination.
Senators Di Natale and Dr Mehreen Faruqi’s joint statement
Tellingly, on August 13, Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Richard Di Natale and Greens NSW Senator, Dr Mehreen Faruqi issued a joint statement expressing concern over the situation in Kashmir after India’s annexation of the disputed territory.
The joint statement said: In the last few days, the Indian Government has shut down phone and internet connections, arbitrarily detained political leaders, evacuated tourists and restricted freedom of movement. It is disturbing to think of the human rights abuses that could be occurring under the cover of this communications blackout, particularly with an influx of tens of thousands of additional troops.
“The Indian Government’s decision to revoke Kashmir’s special status and its relative autonomy under India’s constitution will further erode Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. It risks a dangerous escalation of violence in the world’s most militarized region. The Greens urge the Australian Government to speak out and call on the Indian Government to respect the human rights of the people in Kashmir and their right to self-determination.”
Australia has an important role to play in protecting the lives of the people in India Administered Kashmir, writes Lee Rhiannon
Lee Rhiannon, a former Greens Senator, recently visited Pakistan administered Kashmir. She paid for her own travel costs and published her visit’s report on New Matilda on September 11. Here are excerpts from her report:
Until 1985, Australian military observers were part of the United Nations Military Observer Group in Kashmir. In 1950 Sir Owen Dixon, the sixth Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, was appointed by the United Nations Security Council as the UN representative to organise a plebiscite on self-determination in Jammu and Kashmir.
The plebiscite, a recommendation carried in a number of UN resolutions, was however never held. This is not a reflection on Sir Owen Dixon. It was a collective failure of governments.
Tragically over many decades the global community from official channels to progressive movements have largely followed a hands off approach to Kashmir. It is astonishing how little coverage the issue receives in the West considering it is estimated that more than 47,000 people have died since 1947. The narrative that this should be left as a bilateral matter has come to dominate.
That could be about to change. The many Kashmiris I met have great hope that the UN human rights report on Kashmir, released in June, sets out the stark dimensions of the conflict and the recommendations have the potential to provide a pathway to self-determination.
The 49-page report reveals that millions have suffered human rights abuses. The harm caused by the pellet-firing shotgun, currently the favoured weapon of the Indian military in India Administered Kashmir, is singled out. More than 6,000 people were injured by the metal pellets from 2016 to March 2017. Many people have lost their sight and at least 17 have died.
The report also notes that up to 145 civilians were killed by security forces between mid-July 2016 and the end of March 2018. Tragically, rape and sexual violence remain weapons of the occupying forces.
Kashmiri women have been largely absent from narratives about this region. The gendered violence that results in thousands of widows, single parent families and women led households heightens women’s feelings of vulnerability, financial insecurity and emotional trauma and stress.
A heartening aspect of the UN report is the authors’ intent that the personal toll behind the statistical analysis must be addressed. In June when the report was released the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called for compensation for the victims, as well as an end to the violence and accountability for past and current violations.
The starting point to achieve the Report’s momentous recommendations is the adoption of a Committee of Inquiry “to conduct a comprehensive independent international investigation into allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir”.
Currently the Indian government is hostile to this recommendation. The Indian Ministry for External Affairs has said the Report “is fallacious, tendentious and motivated”. They even questioned why such a report was even released.
In contrast, the Pakistan Foreign Minister has said his government is ready to cooperate with the proposed UN Committee of Inquiry…..
Right now, it appears that India’s plan is to try and retain its strategy of restricting news about the reality of life for the people of Kashmir. In July, just weeks after the UN human rights report was released, the Indian government wrote to all foreign correspondents based in its country to remind them that they must apply in writing for permission if they wish to travel anywhere in Jammu and Kashmir. This is being viewed as an extension of the existing ban that prohibits journalists visiting conflict zones in Kashmir.
Former Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon was not allowed to visit the Indian-administered Kashmir.
[American Muslim Perspective Report]
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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