for inviting me to be the Guest of Honour to this first international conference on ‘Self-determination and the United Nations’.
I wished and cherished to be present at the Conference so that I would have an opportunity to meet with you and discuss the issues relating to self-determination and the predicament of our people in Jammu-Kashmir. I am sorry that I could not be with you. There are people here who did not want me to be with you.
The Government of India has not facilitated me with appropriate travel documents. This is not the first time, and I am not the first one who is once again faced with another violation of another basic human right. My other colleagues in the APHC have also faced this problem. Freedom of movement and freedom of speech is a right not a privilege.
So many of our rights have been curtailed in Kashmir that it would take me all day to go through the list. I only wish that member countries of the United Nations who have signed up to the Charter and its Covenants adhere to their obligations.
Clearly, India has indicated little regard for the UN and its Charter on fundamental human right for individuals and communities and nations. I regret that it also indicates to me that the mechanisms to check and correct such imbalances is not working and the world community, the NGOs and governments need to work hard to improve the situation. The international community has got to come to the aide of people and nations under foreign occupation, where repression and suppression is at its peak - and not in a chosen few places. My Kashmir is one such place, which needs your urgent attention.
They used to call it heaven on earth. It has been turned into living hell by the forces of occupation over the last 50 years and particularly over the last 10 years. They will not admit it but I can tell you that there are over half a million armed forces of India in every street corner, in every town and city. This is the largest concentration of military in a small place such as Kashmir.
I have seen with my own eyes, hundreds and thousands of our young men, women and children killed in the streets of Jammu-Kashmir.
Why? Because our people demand that they be allowed to exercise their fundamental human right – the right to of self determination, the right to self-rule.
As you will know, the UN Security Council passed a number of resolutions on the question of Kashmir’s future - recognising the fact that Kashmir is a disputed territory and that its people only, over 12 million in population now, must decide their destiny. It is unfortunate that since these resolutions were passed no progress has been made with regard to final disposition of the issue. And now, 50 years on, the ground situation has changed for the worst.
I believe the Kashmir issue now requires fresh and new approach by the international community and the United Nations. India and Pakistan now have their fingers on nuclear trigger. Kashmiris have lost a whole generation. Over 60,000 dead and the death toll is rising every day.
You may be unaware that, about fifteen years ago India hanged on of the Kashmiri sons of the soil in New Delhi’s Tihar jail. His name was
in there somewhere too. And yet there is not a day free when innocent Kashmiris are killed by these armed forces in the name of peace. And what do the Peace-Keeping Forces do? Not as much as I would like them to do. We are not asking the UN to send in their troops to save Kashmir as they did in Bosnia. We are asking them help stop the indiscriminate killings, the extra-judicial murders, the rape of our women and the destruction of our people’s livelihood. The use of force to impose a solution on us by any party is not the answer. The use of force to suppress our voice is not going to work either. Our people have demonstrated that over the years and I can assure you that as long as suppression and repression continues so will the resistance movement.
All political disputes are being resolved around the world by political dialogue. I ask you why must the Kashmiris be forced to accept solutions imposed by the occupiers of our country? I wish to make it crystal clear to you that my organisation, the JKLF cannot see any other solution to the crisis in Kashmir. We think re-unification and complete independence for Jammu-Kashmir is the answer to the problem, which should be determined through the exercise of right of self-determination. Internal autonomy, maintaining the status quo, partitioning the State, all of this has been tried over the past 50 years. All these options have failed. I seek your support for this amicable solution, which will not only cater for the legitimate national interests of all our neighbours, India and Pakistan, as well as safeguarding the rights of all our minority communities in Jammu-Kashmir.
I assure you that no matter how long it takes, I will not betray the cause of our martyrs. With your help we can realise the dream of our long-suppressed people sooner than later. I hope that this Conference will go some way in helping the people of Kashmir in determining their future. I also hope that the NGO community will continue its support for our just cause. I thank your for listening to me. Thank you and good bye.