Author: Hermann Jung
Publication: Aseemaa
Date: June 2002
Dear Madam/Dear Sir,
In the above report I noted, first
of all, that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, at least one third of the territory,
was not mentioned, and in Indian-held Kashmir not the Government side 'but
only the opposition had its say.
This is no exception here; neither
amnesty international nor the big media give exhaustive and unleashed information
on Kashmir so far.
In the following I shall summarize
in a few points what I have to complement and correct in this matter:
1. You lament that so far Kashmir
has hardly been independent. In fact it was more or less independent until
Mughal rule. Just as in Germany before Bismarck this was the rule in India
then. Kashmir was, however - and this can be verified through the oldest
scriptures - from Video times onward part of Indian civilization. Cultural
unity was upheld even in periods of decline, and political fragmentation.
2. You mention torture by the military
and in this connection talk about "vanished" persons, but do hot mention
the cruelties and murders committed by the rebels, also on Muslim population.
The result is that many Kashmiri Muslims also fled to other parts of India
where they try to build a new existence.
Among the Kashmiri Hindu minority
right at the beginning of the armed rebellion a number of families were
massacred. After that most Hindus fled south. V/here Hindus stayed on -
above all in Southern Kashmir and in rural Jammu - the whole Hindu population
of some villages was killed at night. After that it was the turn of Kashmiri
Sikha and loyal Muslim groups. Women without exception were raped before
being massacred.
Muslim girls sometimes get a fairer
treatment. They are being abducted, have to serve as prostitutes, and when
they are "used up" are usually let free.
Since about summer 2000 some victims
hat their tongues out and eyes squeezed out.
Here some examples of how Kashmiri
Hindu refugees were treated by Indian governments:
During the night preceding Jan.
26, 1998, the Indian Republic Day, 23rd Hindus were killed in the village
of Wandhama,- among them three little children and nine women. The state-owned
Indian television sent the news only on 26 Jan. afternoon and did not mention
the religion of the victims. Because of this incident the Kashmiri Hindus
staying in Delhi organized a protest march on 27 Jan. 1998 which after
a short time was stopped by a strong police force which used water cannons
and lathis to disperse the protesters.
In 1998 terrorists in captivity
received Rs. 17 per night plus free medical treatment whereas Kashmiri
children whose parents had been killed by the terrorists got just Rs. 2.50
a day. Since long terrorists have been destroying state schools in Kashmir
where as not only here but all over India, above all in vulnerable border
areas, Koran schools are on a fast increase. It is the same phenomenon
as in many Muslim countries, and the fundamentalists have no recruiting
problems.
3. India a plebiscite in her part
of Kashmir, this you learn in a very report here. The interesting point,
however, is that no report says anything about a plebiscite in Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir and about the attitude of the people there.
When the British left India there
existed many half-autonomous princely states whose rulers could decide,
without any plebiscite, whether they acceded to India or Pakistan.
The ruler of Kashmir delayed his
decision until Hill 'Tribes of North-Western Pakistan - the same breed
as those who for the last few years have been terrorizing the Afghan people
- took it out of his hands.
These tribes, supported by the Pakistani
Army and partly led by Pakistani officers, invaded Kashmir, killing, plundering
and raping and trying to make it a part of Pakistan. The princely troops
were no match for them.
On the advice of Sheikh Abdullah,
the leader of the most important political movement in Kashmir, the Prince
declared his accession to the Indian Union so that Indian troops had a
right to move in and push the intruders back.
Through this declaration of the
Prince Kashmir had become, just as other princely states, and including
the parts now held by Pakistan and China, a part of India. And just as
in other former princely states of the Subcontinent there exists no reason
for a plebiscite. In the beginning of the Kashmir controversy India had
agreed to a plebiscite as soon as the state would become peaceful. Thanks
to the subversive activity of Pakistan Kashmir never became peaceful.
Peace could be had pretty quick
if Pakistan would stop supporting terrorists and close their training camps.
How the situation borders on the grotesque: Afghan-terrorists are being
eliminated. Therefore Pakistan is needed. The consequence seems to be that
terrorists operating from Pakistan-held Kashmir and their training camps
there will not be touched. Only Indians suffer through them.
If and when in Indian Kashmir the
mood of the people- after manipulated elections, for example made, according
to 'western observers, a plebiscite desirable, then these observers should
have demanded the same also for Pakistan-held Kashmir as well as for Pakistani
provinces Sindh and Baluchistan. And when in Indian Kashmir election results
were manipulated in favour of India then this was not engineered from -Delhi
but in Kashmir and by those who wanted to stay in power and hold their
positions there.
Between 1947 and 1952 the first
Chief Minister of Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah, repeatedly declared in public
that the accession of his state to India was irrevocable and final, but
from January 1948 onward he had deliberations with American politicians
about an independent Kashmir.
Already from that time the Hindu
minority (Kashmiri Pandits) had to suffer heavy discriminations through
Muslim authorities in taxation, allocation of posts, promotion etc. and
had to resort to legal means to get their due.
To sum up: What your telecast and
other reports on Kashmir sub-press exonerates nearly exclusively the Indian
side.
It is also striking that immediately
after the rapprochement of the U.S. and Pakistan, necessitated by the Afghan
campaign, we have biassed reports on India in the German media.
