UK Parliament Debates Human Rights In Kashmir

Brut India

This debate on Kashmir in the UK Parliament prompted a strong objection from India...

Transcript

00:00The long-drawn dispute of the state of Jammu and Kashmir remains a hanging fireball.

00:05This house has a special responsibility for the plight of the Kashmiri people.

00:10The question on the minds of millions of Kashmiris worldwide and in the region is simply this.

00:16How will the b**** of Gujarat settle this unfinished business of partition?

00:30The partition of India into India and Pakistan in 1947 and the cavalier manner in which the

00:58governance of Kashmiris was determined without them has led to 74 years of unrest, dozens of UN

01:05resolutions and the violence across the line of control. The UN report also noted that the number

01:11of armed groups that have been operating across IAK and which were also held responsible for human

01:17rights abuses including kidnappings, killings of civilians and sexual violence. The report stated

01:25that despite the Pakistan government's denial and I'm quoting again, experts believe that Pakistan's

01:32military continues to support their operations across the line of control in IAK. The dispute

01:39over Jammu and Kashmir is one clearly for India and Pakistan to resolve. That's been the position

01:46of successive UK governments of different political stripes and it's the right one. We should also

01:52keep in mind that the whole of Kashmir acceded to India when the country gained its independence in

01:571947 even if part of the area was subsequently seized or unoccupied by Pakistan. In the last two

02:05years human rights groups have documented the everyday reality of this governance for Kashmiris.

02:10Mass arrests and raids, torture, the suppression of free assembly, the crushing of the Kashmiri

02:16press, the decimation of the local economy, the crippling of the education system, the incarnation

02:22of thousands of people, the conversion of hotels and guest houses into detention centres, the gagging

02:28of Kashmiri civil society. Censorship has been institutionalised, journalism has been criminalised.

02:34This is a critical juncture for the future of Kashmir and while today's debate sadly will be

02:42another debate where we list off a raft of grave human rights abuses taking place in Indian occupied

02:47Kashmir. The Kashmiri valley is a beautiful area to see. It is an opportunity for tourism,

02:54for culture, for trade, for hydroelectric power and many other aspects but the fact is it's been

03:00tainted by multiple mass exoduses, terrorist attacks, killings, child marriages and forced

03:06conversions by radical Islamist terrorists. We should remember that whilst the Kashmir valley

03:13may be predominantly Muslim, Jammu is predominantly Hindu and Ladakh predominantly Buddhist and the

03:19fact is that the historically persecuted religious minorities of Hindus, Sikhs, Christian women and

03:26children have unfortunately suffered in the valley. If India wants to take its place as one of the

03:31great world powers surely this issue of human rights abuses in Kashmir holds them back, makes

03:37people feel differently about them. As always in international conflict is happening I ask myself

03:41where are the women? Where are the women of Kashmir who've been carrying the heaviest burden in the

03:46ongoing three-decade conflict? Not surprisingly but dismayingly the report and information collated

03:52about abuse against Kashmiri women is slim at best. In South Asia the long-drawn dispute of

03:59the state of Jammu and Kashmir remains a hanging fireball, a hanging fireball between two hostile

04:06nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan. It has been bringing human misery in the form of wars, human

04:13rights violations on the issue and continues to threaten regional and global peace. It is common

04:19knowledge that Kashmir is deemed the unfinished business of partition. The question on the minds

04:24of millions of Kashmiris worldwide and in the region is simply this, how will the of Gujarat

04:30settle this unfinished business of partition? And to those who ask why Kashmir and why we should care

04:37aside from the barefaced violations of international human rights and our colonial legacy

04:41the answer is that Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir is the world's largest militarized zone

04:46and India and Pakistan are two nuclear armed states who are at the brink of war if India

04:51continues its warmongering. Human rights abuses in Kashmir are not simply some issue of foreign policy

04:56of which Britain can wash its hands of responsibility nor are they a bilateral

05:01issue for India and Pakistan to resolve. This house has a special responsibility

05:06for the plight of the Kashmiri people.

05:19The government takes the situation in Kashmir very seriously but it's for India and Pakistan

05:25to find a lasting political solution taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

05:33It's not for the UK to prescribe a solution.

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