Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai
Chairman
World Forum for Peace & Justice
Istanbul, Turkey.November 3, 2024 (TW) __ 8th International Model Islamic Union Congress, organized by Justice Defenders Strategic Studies Center (ASSAM) concluded today in Istanbul, Turkey. Ustaaz Melih Tanriverdi, Chairman, Board at SADAT International Defense Consultancy highlighted the purpose of Assam in his opening remarks. ASSAM, he said is a civil society organization, a think tank, that tries to propose solutions to international, regional and local crises.
Ustaaz Tanriverdi added that the 2024 International Congress received dozens of papers, however, 26 papers from 14 countries were deemed appropriate to be included in the congress. The distribution of these papers is as follows; Chad (2), Palestine (3), France (1), Gambia (1), England (1), Qatar (1), Kashmir (2), Malaysia (1), Egypt (2), Pakistan (2), Syria (1), Tunisia (1), Turkey (7), Yemen (1).
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Chairman, World Forum for Peace & Justice presented a paper, entitled: ‘US Policy Towards Kashmir: Help or Hindrance.’ Dr. Fai said that the bright star in the constellation of objectives of the Kashmiri American Community is self-determination for the 23 million people who are illegally denied this right for over 77 years. A pivotal subsidiary objective is enlisting the support of the United States Government behind Kashmiri peaceful struggle: diplomatic, moral, or otherwise. They do not desire the employment of the United States military in Kashmir to end the conflict and its accompanying human rights inferno as was done in other international conflicts.
Kashmiri American community aims to educate the United States about the moral and international law urgency of Kashmiri self-determination and about the national security, democratic, and human rights benefits that would ensue from achieving that objective. In other words, they are not relying on American altruism to arouse United States interest in solving the Kashmir conflict, but on unstarry-eyed considerations of Realpolitik. As Lord Palmerston has said that ‘Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.’
The power centers of the United States that bear on foreign policy is exceptionally diverse and scattered. Influence is splintered among Congress, the Executive Branch, major broadcast and print media outlets, think tanks, colleges and universities. None can be overlooked in the road to garnering United States strong backing for Kashmiri self-determination. And each must be approached with different advocacy techniques.
The following consideration is most pertinent for an assessment of the dispute by the policy-making agencies and personalities of the United States. When the Kashmir dispute erupted in 1947-1948, the United States championed the stand that the future status of Kashmir must be ascertained in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the people of the territory. The United States was the principal sponsor of the resolution # 47 which was adopted by the Security Council on 21 April 1948, and which was based on that unchallenged principle. Following the resolution, the United States as a leading member of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP), adhered to that stand. The basic formula for settlement was incorporated in the resolutions of that Commission adopted on 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949.
The current United States policy towards Kashmir can be succinctly stated that the territory’s status should be settled through negotiations between India and Pakistan while taking into account the wishes of the people of Kashmir.
The United States interests in a resolution of the Kashmir strife and upheaval are manifold: i). It would thwart the nuclear and missile proliferation race between India and Pakistan that menaces the entire world with the possibility of a nuclear winter. Ii). It would bolster respect for international law. iii). The resolution of Kashmir would bring democracy and human rights to a new nation in lieu of an iron-fisted military regime whose human rights atrocities rank with those that triggered NATO intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo and United Nations intervention in East Timor, Southern Sudan, Namibia, etc., : more than 100,000 extrajudicial killings in the last three decade alone, coupled with the commonplace horrors of torture, rape, arson, plunder, custodial disappearances, abductions, arbitrary detentions without trial, and ruthless punishment of peaceful political dissent. The Government of India even makes criminal the advocacy of implementation of the United Nations Security Council’s self-determination resolutions! Internationally known India’s Booker Prize winning author Arundhati Roy is facing sedition charges for her remarks which she made in 2010 that “Kashmir has never been an integral part of India.”
India has cleverly kept UN Special Thematic Rapporteurs, most international NGOs, and international journalists out of Kashmir and confined the foreign travel of Kashmiri leaders to keep the international community ill-informed about the realities of the conflict.
It is quite unfortunate that the Biden administration and the United Nations both have chosen to adopt India’s view that this is simply a bilateral issue. This is a political mask similar to that worn by the Joker in the Batman series intended to deceive. Unfortunately, it is the Big Lie, and an extremely dangerous one. As long as India continues to play blame game, India and Pakistan remain on the verge of war with each other, and this is a threat to international peace and security. When two nuclear countries are facing each other down, as they have for the last 77 years, with already three wars under their belts, that’s not a bilateral issue whatsoever. That has the makings of a world war. Nothing else demands international attention like such a threat, and it greatly behooves the United States, the United Nations and other allies to sit up and take heed.
The Biden administration favors US-India strategic partnership. It made no protests at the United Nations Security Council when India abrogated Article 370 and 35 A on August 5, 2019 and enacted Domicile Law in 2020 to change the demography of Kashmir. No outcry over India’s violations of its plebiscite resolutions. That is tantamount to acquiescence in India’s illegal claim of sovereignty over Kashmir. The United States gave India a veto over any third-party intervention knowing it would be employed to the disadvantage of Pakistan and Kashmiris. They made no attempt at building moral suasion against India’s human rights crimes and brutalities as was done against South Africa’s apartheid, Yugoslavia’s ethnic cleansing, and Indonesia’s maltreatment of East Timorese.
A pro-India tilt in the United States is largely caused by India’s multi-million annual lobbying campaign with Congress and the Executive Branch coupled with a soaring number of politically organized Indian Americans in the information industry who command handsome salaries and make generous campaign contributions through political action committees. Now the Democratic Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris and the wife of Republican Vice-Presidential candidate add to the influence of Indian American community.
The point of these observations is to demonstrate that the United States prevailing tilt toward India represents not a break from the past but a continuity. The reasons for the pro-India sentiments are manifold. A hefty percentage of Americans equate India with Mahatma Gandhi, especially after watching movies that treat him as a virtual deity of peace and non-violence. The economic attractiveness of India as a trade and investment partner also plays a role in its image. India has maneuvered skillfully to keep its Kashmir atrocities off the likes of CNN and BBC and the front pages of newspapers by the exclusion of foreign journalists or permitting them only carefully scripted and chaperoned visits. No pictures mean little international outrage and calls to action.
This obviously does not bode well for anyone looking for U.S. support for human rights causes, particularly in Kashmir. The bipartisan support that Kashmir issue was given by the United States Administration at the United Nations seem to be disappearing. Is it because the United States was wrong then or is it because United States policy towards international legality and morality has changed, one may ask?
The people of Kashmir have no other option but to reinforce their resolve in raising these issues along with the promise of self-determination at every forum where possible. They firmly believe that the international community can bring the violence in Kashmir to a quick end by initiating a political dialogue between the genuine Kashmiri leadership and the Governments of India and Pakistan to set the stage for a democratic and peaceful solution. And an appointment of a person of an international standing like Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway a special envoy on Kashmir.
If sincerity is brought to the process in place of cheap trickery, the dawn of peace will glow as never before over the subcontinent – the home to one-fifth of total human race.
Dr. Fai is also the Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum.
He can be reached at: WhatsApp: 1-202-607-6435 or. [email protected]
www.kashmirawareness.org