It has taken the UN three months to react to street demonstrations in Kashmir which have left over 100 people dead. UN secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called for an immediate end to violence in Kashmir after recent deadly clashes there.
“The Secretary-General regrets the latest loss of life,” his spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters. “He calls for an immediate end to violence and urges calm and restraint by all concerned.”
The UN reaction came a day after an Indian all-party delegation visited Kashmir. The first apparently proactive reaction from the Indian government too came after over three months of violent clashes on the streets of Kashmir.
Disappearances in Kashmir, a group created to demand justice for disappearances in Kashmir Valley, felt the UN has always sidelined the Kashmir dispute, one of the oldest issues pending with the world body. "The current crisis in Kashmir can have serious consequences if unchecked. Beside, just calling for an end to violence can't solve the issue. The UN should send their team to Kashmir and investigate the killings and pressure both India and Pakistan to hold a referendum as has been promised by both these nations in United Nations," a spokesperson of the group told this correspondent.
A spokesperson of the Kashmir Cyber Intifada group, Mehnoor Khan, said, "World bodies like UN need to play a much more proactive role in this situation as it is a party to the Kashmir conflict with dozens of pending UN resolutions calling for the right to self-determination. But it's been such a shame that the latest statement from the UN has come only after three months of anarchy on the streets of Kashmir.
"It's time for the UN and India to fulfill their promise and pledges that they have given to Kashmiris long time back. And if not for now then there is a chance that peace is going to be shattered with an inevitable violent struggle in Kashmir. That is the last thing that this subcontinent would want in the existence of two nuclear states." Kashmir Cyber Intifada, a resistance group, operates primarily through the social networking site, Facebook.
The situation in the Kashmir Valley has been tense since the extrajudicial killings of three villagers by security forces in April. But after Indian security forces shot dead a 17-year-old youth returning home from a tutoring lesson in June, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has been rocked by mass protests. Youths, women and even the old have taken to the streets. The Kashmir Valley has seen 85 days of curfew since the end of June.
Explained Mehnoor, "The current ongoing Kashmir intifada is increasing its scope with each passing day, involving a mass spectrum of all age groups and different social classes ― be it young or old, male or female, rich or poor, everyone seems to be involved. The other critical factor is the absence of the Pakistan factor and it is believed Kashmiris have realised that Pakistan is not in a position to support them and thus have taken it on their own."
Over 100 protesters and bystanders, mostly young men, have been killed and hundreds injured. Most youngsters have been killed by security forces firing at demonstrators who were pelting them with stones, chunks of wood, and occasionally even pieces of concrete.
Amnesty International has called on Indian authorities to take urgent steps to ensure respect for the right to life and to investigate past killings of demonstrators by police. "Security forces should use the minimum force necessary to defend themselves or others against an imminent threat of death or serious injury. They should not employ intentional lethal use of firearms except where such use is strictly unavoidable in order to protect life," it said in a statement.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has already called for a full and transparent inquiry into human rights abuses that underlie the current protests. The state government should release the findings of its inquiry into allegations of excessive use of force during the ongoing protests in Kashmir, the organisation has said.
"The protests have at times been violent, but the security forces need to respond as professional law enforcers," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "When the security forces unnecessarily use lethal force, especially against teenagers and even children, they make a bad situation far worse."
But there is a limit. "The only demand of Kashmiris is that their sentiment needs to be recognised and heard with patience by Indian civil society because at this moment there is no gun involved but only stones barraging from Kashmiri youths. And if this movement is not recognised then the time is not far away when the violent phase of this struggle will become inevitable," said Mehnoor.
