SRINAGAR, 11 December 2005 — Rebels in Kashmir accused the army of violating human rights and appealed for UN intervention as they staged protest marches yesterday to mark International Human Rights Day.
Police broke up a small march by activists of the main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, in the summer capital Srinagar and detained four separatists.
“They have been detained for violating law and order,” a police officer at the scene said. But another group of protesters presented a petition to the small United Nations office in Srinagar that monitors the cease-fire along the Line of Control which separates the Indian and Pakistani zones of Kashmir.
The protesters were led by a senior Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah who spent over 20 years in Indian jails and who heads Kashmirs anti-violence Democratic Freedom Party.
The petition addressed to UN chief Kofi Annan alleged that rights violations were continuing in Kashmir despite a peace process between India and Pakistan.
“There is no letup in human rights violations (by Indian troops) even as a constructive peace process is going on,” read the two-page memorandum. “We continue to be killed and oppressed.”
“On behalf of nearly 13 million people on both sides of the Line of Control, I passionately appeal to your kind self to respond to the boiling Kashmir situation,” the document said.
“We believe demilitarizing the region would help find the long elusive Kashmir solution. Let this credible world body reach out to the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir,” it added.
India’s Army is seeking to crush a 16-year-old revolt against New Delhi’s rule. It denies allegations of systematic human rights abuses and says those found guilty of any wrongdoing are punished.
New Delhi has barred Amnesty and other leading international human rights groups from visiting Kashmir to check on the situation.
