Author: Seema Mustafa
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: May 12, 2006
A group of British parliamentarians have come
together to set up a "Parliamentarians for National Self-Determination"
body that will seek to get international recognition of self-determination
as a fundamental human right. India is a clear target, with the organisers
listing "Punjab, Nagas, Manipur, Tamils and Kashmiris" in their
list of movements seeking self-determination.
The chair of the new organisation, which was
inaugurated at the Houses of Parliament at Westminster on Thursday, is Pakistani-origin
Labour Party parliamentarian Lord Nazir Ahmed, with Mr Ranjit Singh, a lawyer
who is openly supportive of a separate state of Punjab, as its administrative
secretary.
The Indian high commission in London has taken
the matter up with the British foreign office, which has disclaimed all responsibility,
maintaining that it cannot interfere in the workings of the British Parliament.
Mr Ranjit Singh, when contacted over the telephone by this correspondent,
said that the effort of the parliamentarians was to propagate self-determination
as a fundamental human right, and to give a platform through the organisation
to all such separatist groups seeking self-determination. He said that a group
of lawyers from Punjab had made a very forceful presentation for "the
Sikhs' right to self-determination" at the inaugural function. He said
he himself was from Punjab and supported the right to self-determination which
had assumed the shape of the "Khalistan" movement in the 1980s.
Mr Singh claimed that the inaugural function
was very well attended and that apart from Punjab, the "nationalist movements"
of the "Nagas, Manipur, Northeast, Tamils, Kosovo, Kurdish self-determination"
... all had figured at the meeting. Interestingly, he had to be asked specifically
about the Kashmiris, to which he said: "Yes, there were several speakers
actually on this issue." Asked if representatives from Pakistan's Northern
Areas, Gilgit, Baltistan as well as Baluchistan had been represented, Mr Singh
said: "We are a new organisation, more groups will come." It is
learnt that a group of Baluchis did arrive for the conference but, sources
said, "they were not allowed to speak for more than 30 seconds."
Mr Ranjit Singh said that in his view, "if
people are denied self-determination, the situation eventually leads to huge
human rights abuses." He said that a cross-section of MPs was represented
in the organisation and it would focus on "informing the world that self-determination
was a fundamental right and not just a political slogan." The vice-chair
of the parliamentarians group is Mr Elfyn Llwyd, MP, who represents the Welsh,
Scottish and English nationalist groups. Others who spoke and are associated
with the organisation include Mr Simon Hughes, president of the Liberal Democratic
Party, Daniel Hannon, member of the European Parliament from the Conservative
Party, Mr Peter Wishart, MP of the Scottish Nationalist Party, and Mr Kashmiri
Singh, general secretary of the British Sikh Federation. The conference was
organised in collaboration with the Hague-based Unrepresented Nations and
Peoples Organisation (UNPO).
Lord Nazir Ahmad could not be reached. Sources
said that he is the treasurer of a newly-constituted group on Sikhs and helps
raise and channel funds. He is particularly unpopular with the Indian community
in London, with several members having written to him protesting against the
visible anti-India bias of the new organisation. Lord Dholakia, who is chairman
of the Liberal Democrats' Friends of India, spoke out against the parliamentarians'
initiative in the House of Lords. He said that it was important to ensure
that government subcommittees were representative of all communities, and
"not restricted just to those perceived as being responsible for the
atrocities on that day." He went on to point out: "When examining
home-grown terrorism, we need to consider the pronouncements often made by
responsible people in our community in this country. I refer, for example,
to those who exploit the situation in the subcontinent by advocating self-determination
of some states in that part of the world. Those are the breeding grounds of
emotions and hatred and do nothing but damage the stability of some people
in this country and the stability of communities."
Interestingly, several Baloch and Sindhi groups
are active in the UK and submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Tony Blair
last year demanding that Pakistan should stop "committing ongoing atrocities
against our peoples in Pakistan. Over the last six months, Pakistan's military
and paramilitary forces have once again started a widespread operation using
heavy air and ground artillery in various parts of Balochistan. This violent
and illegal operation was started to suppress the legitimate demands of the
Baloch people." The signatories to this memorandum, which is with this
newspaper, included the World Sindhi Congress, Sindhi Baloch Forum and Balochistan
Rights Movement, who incidentally were not invited to the parliamentarians
and the UNPO's inaugural conference.