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The Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organisation is very concerned
about Kashmir. "Attempts to distort the entire concept of
self-determination to the detriment of the concept of the
nation-state have to be discouraged, or else none, including the
developed and developing countries, would be safe and able to
preserve their integrity," a member of this NGO told a high-profile
UN body this week.
No names are taken, no states mentioned. Probably, nobody
understood anything. But that is the point and that is the stuff
that has spurred hundreds of saviours of Kashmir who tell the world
every year in Geneva that India is bad, Pakistan is bad, both are
bad, but both can become good if only the good offices of good
Western governments got involved. This year, it is all about being
discreet and careful, blaming both sides in the interest of
Kashmiri balance. The stick hasn't worked. Maybe the carrot will.
This year, there has been no anti-India resolution.
But Dr Ghulam Muhamad Safi, a regular, has no time for subtleties,
though sensing the change in the air, he, too, has changed tack.
The general secretary of the Hurriyat says both India and Pakistan
have let Kashmir down. Push him and he says India is more to blame,
and proceeds to explain how and why. A short history lesson, a
quick and selective recounting of dates and UN resolutions on
Kashmir, and a fresh call to be included in talks between the two
countries follows. India says he fled Kashmir after murder charges
were thrown at his face. Safi says all that is "Indian
propaganda."
Tell him he peddles Pakistani propaganda on Kashmir and he replies
again that that too is In than propaganda. Either way, you cannot
win. The lines are part of his speech, presence and ticket to
Geneva. Representing the International Federation of Students
Organisations, Safi tells the United Nations Human Rights
Commission (UNHRC) that India's "draconian" laws, coupled with New
Delhi's rule either directly or through its "quislings, " have
destroyed Kashmir.
Safi thunders: "... the role of a silent spectator played by the
world community has encouraged India to intensify repression
against those who demand nothing but their promised right in a UN
disputed territory. ... For how long will the modern colonial and
alien power equated the demand to self-determination with treason?"
This year, there's no applause. Only tired diplomats.
In a conversation with The Indian Express, Safi, with remarkable
ease, complains about the proliferation of imposters claiming to
speak for the rights of the Kashmiris. "What is the point in India
and Paskistan talking about Kashmir without including the people of
Kashmir in the negotiations?" he asks. The "people", he rushes to
point out, are the Hurriyat as they are the ones designated by the
"people" of Kashmir to speak for them.
In another corner, Syed Nazir Gilani of the Jammu and Kashmir
Council for Human Rights gives everybody a copy of his report
written after a recent visit to Kashmir. The Indian side, that is.
Last time around, he was cursing India. This time, everything is
muted and confusing, or attempting to confuse. His biggest
problem, Gilani says, is that he's seen by both sides as batting
for the other, but his heart truly beats for peace in Kashmir.
Six Weeks of Sheer Tedium
Welcome to Geneva-Kashmir, where for six tedious weeks every year
India and Pakistan save Kashmir, aided by NGOs and GONGOs
(government-sponsored non-governmental organisations). At last
count, there were over a dozen NGOs and GONGOs present in Geneva
defending the rights of the Kashmiris. Some of them have
photocopies of old letters from President Bill Clinton and new
letters from British and German MPs, all expressing concern over
Kashmir. Others have masks. Yet others from San Francisco and
Wyoming have fax machines and e-mail addresses, which qualify them
to speak for the Kashmiris.
If you walk around the UN headquarters in Geneva around this time
of the year and get the funny feeling that you are in India or
Pakistan, don't worry, you're doing fine. If you feel you have
landed in some kind of a Kashmir, you're doing even better, because
you most probably have walked into a session of Geneva-Kashmir,
which, once every year, saves the real Kashmir.
Every year, for six weeks spread over March and April, nations
accuse, protect, curse and condemn each other, and each other's
friends' enemies' dreadful human right records. The UN's aims,
though, were quite honourable. In the beginning, using the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a yardstick, it said the
world's children, women and men could live, pray, speak and defend
their interests without fear or favour. When nations were thought
to be erring, the UN also gave the commission the right to send
special investigators to find out if accusations of arbitrary
detention, torture, religious intolerance, and so on were founded
in fact, or fabricated.
Over the years, the 53 -member UNHRC has turned into a
mela-cum-circus and accusations that it has lost its meaning and
legitimacy have come from all corners of the world. Developing
countries say the UNHRC backs a Western agenda where human rights
is a weapon to be used selectively, while the West says the
presence of countries Re Cuba and Iraq among them is a slur on
civilisation.
Of course, civilised western democracies are careful not to
criticise Turkey, where NATO has a strategic base, and this year,
like others before, they have banded together to avoid criticism of
the Asian Tigers, particularly Indonesia (East Timor), because arms
and other contracts are in the pipeline.
Talking of pipelines, Saudi Arabia is also treated math kid gloves
by its Western protectors because the country has no human rights,
but a lot of oil and a lot of room to station US troops. Russia,
too, gets away math anything, and as long as its head can hold the
hands of other Western heads of state and government, nobody says
Chechnya.
This year, the focal point of censure is China, which is slated to
face the sting of a draft resolution backed by the US and the
European Union. But the Chinese have billions of dollars in trade
surplus with both, and that has, at least in part, helped them
scuttle six other attempts at a resolution. China is confident it
will win again. The West, too, is confident that it will lose. The
charade, however, must continue.
Free Ticket to an
Alpine Holiday
Kashmir always gets attention at the UNHRC. For ,over a decade
now, but more vigorously in the past few years, India and Pakistan
shift the line of control to Geneva around this time. This time
around they are fewer in number, but they are there, ready to act
on orders. This is where Indian Kashmiris, Pakistani Kashmiris,
American Kashmiris and European Kashmiris, Kashmiri Muslims and
Hindus, argue endlessly over who has the right to speak for the
right of self-determination of the Kashmiris.
For six weeks, the serpentine bar outside the UNHRC is full of
raped Kashmiris, beaten Kashmiris, tortured Kashmiris, homeless
Kashmiris, American Kashmiris, British Kashmiris and Belgian
Kashmiris. Don't ask what this whole thing is all about. Most of
them don't know and don't seem to care, so long as someone picks up
the tab for their air ticket and hotel charges.
Pakistan year after year raised Kashmir at all international
forums, including birthday parties. New Delhi resisted, but forced
by circumstances which bureaucrats and politicians like to say "are
beyond our control" - decided a few years ago to match Pakistani
propaganda with Indian propaganda. Both are equally subtle. Both
wigs show. The result is an unscripted comedy that must embarrass
both governments, and were the real issue not such a serious
matter, it would lead to laughter everywhere.
It is not at all uncommon for diplomats to exclaim, "Not again!",
when Kashmir is raised at the UNHRC, and it is equally common to
see diplomats breaking into a trot when they sense they are being
approached by an Indian or Pakistani NGO or GONGO.
The Sideshow Gets Better
In past years, Geneva-Kashmir sometimes has had the look of a
fashion show, with Western women showing off their newly acquired
Kashmiri woollen dresses to their admiring Pakistani or Indian
counterparts. This is also where Indian spies roam the corridors
of the UN wondering who's a Pakistani spy, who's part of India's
counter-intelligence, and who could be a double agent.
This is where India, like every other country in the world, send
GONGOs, who speak for Kashmir as New Delhi would like them to.
Inside the UNHRC, India and Pakistan discuss Kashmir. Outside in
bars and cafes, NGOs and GONGOs from both sides hold seminars and
discussions attended by Americans, Finns and Russians. The NGOs
complain they've been infiltrated by GONGOs. The GONGOs say
Western NGOs flush with funds are an extension of their
governments, too. The confusion is complete. Human rights got left
behind somewhere in all this score-settling.
In the past, India opened its war chests to save Kashmir in Geneva.
Mercifully, that phase is over, thanks in large part to Arundhati
Ghosh (of CTBT fame), who can tell everybody, including her
Pakistani counter part, to go take a walk. That, however, hasn't
deterred NGOs, GONGOs and an assortment of groups, including the
Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), from trying to raise
Kashmir at every meeting. Everybody has to earn a living, at
Kashmir's expense.
Geneva- Kashmir has its own momentum, its own private audience
comprising tired diplomats, breathless NGOs and the motley mix of
bleeding-heart governments from Scandinavia. To be fair, Pakistan
hasn't fallen off the chair this time accusing India of rape,
torture, murders and assassinations in Kashmir, partly because of
the just-concluded Foreign Secretary-level talks in New Delhi. But
the other reason is that the world, including the world that counts
at the UNHRC (the US and the EU) has lost interest in Kashmir.
In their equation - and everything at the UN is an equation -
India, which goes to elections once every five years, has
institutions that back democracy, and even has a free press that
snaps ' at everyone, is their safest interlocutor east of Turkey,
west of Tokyo. They seem to have understood, even if India hasn't,
that they need a democratic India in the region more than India
needs their benevolence at the UNHRC. And then, there's Bosnia.
After the mess the West has made in the Balkans, European and US
diplomats realise they are ill-placed to lecture the world about
'MITs', or Muslims-in-Trouble, in Kashmir.
To the Defence of New Delhi
Leading India's defence this year, as in the past five, is the
International Institute of Non-Aligned Studies (IINAS). A
Delhi-based GONGO, this group is what governments will call
value-for-money. Its members work very hard, lobby a lot, and
organise seminars and discussions on issues like development and
human rights. Somebody has done a lot of homework. Led by Dr G.
N. Srivastava and ably assisted by Reena Marwah, IINAS makes up
with hard work for its apparent dependence on New Delhi, Indian
officials deny the two have any links, but gently remind you that
if you write about them, then it should also be said that all
governments do the same thing. Indeed.
And then there's Dr Munawar A. Halepota (notice that most NGOs have
doctorates), Chairman, World Sindhi Congress, liked by New Delhi
because he curses Pakistan, and disliked by Islamabad for the same
reason. Halepota is a tireless crusader for the rights of the
Sindhis and tells the UNHRC year after year that Pakistan has
swallowed Sindh and urges it to send a mission to his homeland.
Dr Ashok Bhan comes here every year to speak on behalf of the
Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation. New Delhi loves him.
It isn't difficult to see why. His list of atrocities committed by
Pakistan in Kashmir mirrors that of New Delhi.
There's something very sad going on here. Everybody knows it is a
charade. Everybody -governments, NGOs, GONGOs, journalists - plays
the game. And the taxpayer pays for the free tickets.
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