news details |
|
|
| Amnesty International can only count the dead! | | Who shall prevent the killing? | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 26: Two decades ago when militancy commenced; three words were on every body’s lips. Highlight, Amnesty International (AI) and international level. Twenty-years down the lane there seems no change in the thinking and attitude of the separatists. They still use the words excessively. Most of the statements issued by the separatist organizations urge the international community and the Amnesty international to take cognizance of “rights violations in Jammu Kashmir.” They also seem desperate to highlight Kashmir issue at international level. However, for their information Kashmir could not be highlighted effectively and the international community has other priorities to handle. As far as AI is concerned, people need to know more about it.
There is no denying the fact that AI has expressed concern over rights abuses in Kashmir. It has also sought repeal of laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Disturbed Area Act and Public Safety Act (PSA). A renowned human rights defender after coming back from an international conference shocked one and all. He was told that rights of people were violated in almost all the countries. There, were no takers, for his reports on rights abuses in Europe. Even the AI people sought so many clarifications that he decided to set ablaze his reports.
There was a time when AI issued its statements on Kashmir from London headquarters. Now all such statements are issued from Amnesty’s New Delhi office.
Valley based human rights defenders perceive it as a major shift in AI policy. Quoting `informed sources’ they say the AI is greatly influenced by New Delhi. The results are obvious. Slowly but surely Amnesty has taken its hands off Kashmir.
What will happen if AI is allowed to visit Kashmir? One has to look into the functioning of the Kashmir chapter of the ICRC for an answer. Notwithstanding ICRC’s reputation, it has, in the opinion of the sufferers, miserably failed in Jammu Kashmir. “Apart from taking letters of prisoners to their relatives, the ICRC has virtually done nothing during the past fourteen years of its stay in Kashmir”, said the parent of a disappeared youth.
According to him, “The ICRC is a fig leaf for New Delhi which it uses to cover its misdeeds. The very presence of ICRC in Kashmir has been sending wrong signals to the international community. The visiting foreign journalists and diplomats believe that the very presence of ICRC plays a potent deterrent and significantly lowers the graph of rights abuses.”
What can the AI do if New Delhi allows it to visit Kashmir formally? India is too strong a country to succumb to AI pressure. The way New Delhi has been treating the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) resolutions on Kashmir leave no scope for an NGO (Non Governmental organization) like the Amnesty International to fulfil the expectations of the separatists.
A sufferer sums it in the following words. “The OIC, AI, ICRC and other organizations can only count the dead. They cannot prevent the killing.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
