Author: Tara Shankar Sahay in New
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: May 8, 2003
URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/08tara1.htm
Panun Kashmir wants US Deputy Secretary
of State Richard Armitage to take up the issue of 'ethnic cleansing' in
Jammu and Kashmir during his visit to the subcontinent, the outfit's national
general secretary, Ramesh Manavati, said on Thursday.
"When US Congressman Frank Pallone
[from New Jersey's Sixth District] was in Srinagar last year, he [had]
assured Kashmiri Pandits that he would urge Deputy Secretary Armitage and
Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca to take up the issue of ethnic
cleansing in J&K with the government in Pakistan," he told rediff.com
He said: "Any fair solution of the
J&K tangle must take our plight into consideration. We are the minority
[in J&K] and we don't have much faith in the state government [when
it comes to] our return, relief and rehabilitation.
"What can we expect from this government
when the prime minister [during his April 18-19 visit to J&K] did not
even have the courtesy of mentioning the recent massacre of our brethren
[in Nadimarg village]? If our own rulers don't help us, we have every right
to approach American lawmakers..."
He threw up his hands in frustration
when asked whether the Centre's interlocutor on Kashmir, N N Vohra, could
help Panun Kashmir.
"Vohra has been going around meeting
various segments of [the] Kashmiri society. But Kashmiri Pandits, as usual,
have been overlooked," he said.
Panun Kashmir activist Yuvraj Raina
said the outfit expects Vohra to approach the political wing of the Kashmiri
Pandits 'and not make a mockery' of his task of finding an amicable solution
'by talking to only the majority [Muslim] community. It is a travesty of
justice'.
Despite several 'rebuffs', the outfit
will keep urging the Centre to solve the problems of the Pandits, he added.