Pak calls for peaceful resolution of Kashmir dispute

Envoy Akram tells UN India occupation ‘worst manifestation of modern-day colonialism’

UNITED NATIONS:

Describing India’s occupation of Jammu and Kashmir as the “worst manifestation of modern-day colonialism”, Pakistan has called on the UN to push for a peaceful settlement of the lingering dispute in accordance with the Security Council resolutions and Kashmiri people’s wishes.

Noting that since 1946, 80 former colonies have gained independence, Ambassador Munir Akram told the General Assembly’s Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth) Committee that there were still peoples who were denied the right to self-determination, “most prominently the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir as well as Palestine”.

The right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people, the Pakistani envoy said, was explicitly recognised in the UNSC resolution 47 and several subsequent resolutions, which prescribed that the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir should be decided by its people through a free and fair plebiscite held under the UN auspices.

These resolutions were accepted by both India and Pakistan, he said, adding that under Article 25 of the UN Charter, both parties were obliged to implement these resolutions.

In his remarks, Ambassador Akram said that durable peace in the Middle East could only be achieved through the two-state solution and the establishment of a viable, independent, and contiguous state of Palestine, with the pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

On Kashmir, the Pakistani envoy said that for 75 years, through force and fraud, India avoided the implementation of UN resolutions, and since 1989, its “brutal” campaign of repression killed 100,000 Kashmiris.

Since Aug 5, 2019, he said, India took “unilateral and illegal steps” to annex occupied Kashmir in what its leaders termed as a “Final Solution”.

“Resolution 122 (1957) of the Security Council provides that unilateral measures ‘to determine the future shape and affiliation of the entire state or any part thereof, would not constitute a disposition of the state’,” Ambassador Akram said, adding that consequently all unilateral actions taken by India on and after Aug 5, 2019 were not only illegal, but, “ipso facto, null and void”.

“Kashmir today is the most densely occupied place in the world, with more than 900,000 Indian occupation troops deployed there who have perpetrated a vicious campaign of extrajudicial killings in fake encounters and so-called ‘cordon and search’ operations; abduction and enforced disappearances of 13,000 young Kashmiri boys; collective punishments, destroying and burning entire villages and urban neighbourhoods,” he said.

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“In a classic settler-colonial project, India is seeking to convert occupied Kashmir from a Muslim-majority state to a Hindu-majority territory,” the Pakistani envoy said, pointing out that over 3.4 million fake domicile certificates had been issued to Hindus from across India.

“The land and properties of Kashmiris are also being confiscated for military and official use,” he told the committee.

India’s brutal campaign, he said, was turbo-charged by the ideology of “Hindutva”, which asserted the religious and ethnic supremacy of Hindus and hate against Muslims.

“This has led the organisation – Genocide Watch – to warn of the possibility of genocide in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and, indeed, against Muslims within India itself.”

Underscoring that the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was essential to achieve durable peace in South Asia, Ambassador Akram said the onus was on India to create conditions for a dialogue towards its settlement.

To that end, he said, India must stop its human rights violations in occupied Jammu and Kashmir; halt and reverse the process of demographic change there; and rescind the illegal and unilateral measures imposed on and after Aug 5, 2019.

“The United Nations and all its Member States are bound by the Charter to promote a peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people,” the Pakistani envoy said in conclusion.