UN body slams India, Pakistan on violations in Kashmir

By Zahid Rafiq and Ahmad Adil

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir / CHANDIGARH, India (AA) - A new report published by the UN rights body has lambasted both India and Pakistan over human right violations in disputed Jammu and Kashmir.

The report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that the number of civilian casualties in the region over the 12-month period from May 2018 to April 2019 is believed to be the highest in over a decade.

“Around 160 civilians were killed in 2018, which is believed to be the highest number in over a decade. Last year also registered the highest number of conflict-related casualties since 2008 with 586 people killed, including 267 members of armed groups and 159 security forces personnel,” the report said.

The report also called out the Indian Home Ministry for publishing lower casualty figures, citing 37 civilians, 238 militants and 86 forces personnel killed in the 11 months up to Dec. 2, 2018.

The report, following up on its previous report from June 2018, again speaks about the lack of accountability by the Indian government for human rights violations by its soldiers in the region, saying that in the last three decades of conflict in the region, not a single armed forces personnel has been held accountable.

“The Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1990 (AFSPA) remains a key obstacle to accountability. Section 7 of the AFSPA prohibits the prosecution of security forces personnel unless the Government of India grants a prior permission or ‘sanction’ to prosecute,” the reported noted.

“The Indian Army has also been resisting efforts to release details of trials conducted by military courts where soldiers were initially found guilty but later acquitted and released by a higher military tribunal,” it added.

“There is no information on the status of the five investigations launched into extrajudicial executions in 2016. The Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir did not establish any investigations into civilian killings in 2017. No prosecutions have been reported,” the report further said.

-Child soldiers

The report also criticized the human rights violations by the militant groups in the region, raising questions over the recruitment of “child soldiers” by militant outfits and for killing of political workers.

“Two armed groups have been accused of recruiting and deploying child soldiers in Kashmir, and armed groups were reportedly responsible for attacks on people affiliated or associated with political organizations in Jammu and Kashmir, including the killing of at least six political party workers and a separatist leader,” the report said.

The Indian government has rejected the report, saying they registered a strong protest with the OHCHR.

“The update of the Report of the OHCHR is merely a continuation of the earlier false and motivated narrative on the situation in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Its assertions are in violation of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and ignore the core issue of cross-border terrorism,” Raveesh Kumar, spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, said in a statement on Monday.

“A situation created by years of cross-border terrorist attacks emanating from Pakistan has been ‘analysed’ without any reference to its causality...It is a matter of deep concern that this Update seems to accord a legitimacy to terrorism that is in complete variance with UN Security Council positions,” Kumar added.

- Restrictions on full enjoyment of human rights

The report also criticized Islamabad for not taking necessary steps to improve human rights situation in Azad Kashmir.

Noting that Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan regions introduced constitutional changes, it said they “failed to address the main elements that restrict the full enjoyment of all human rights for people living in these regions.”

It also said authorities in Gilgit-Baltistan "also failed to amend” provisions in the region’s governance rules that “restrict the rights to freedoms of expression and opinion, assembly and association".

According to the UN body, several major projects have been proposed in Gilgit-Baltistan under multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

"While CPEC has raised expectations of bringing development to an impoverished region, civil society groups say the initial optimism has been replaced by disappointment and a sense of outrage," the report said.

It also states that a key concern in both Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan is that the local communities "do not control natural resources of the territories as these are controlled by Pakistani federal agencies".

"OHCHR has received credible information of enforced disappearances of people from Pakistan-Administered Kashmir including those who were held in secret detention and those whose fate and whereabouts continue to remain unknown," the report said.

"In almost all cases brought to OHCHR’s attention, victim groups allege that Pakistani intelligence agencies were responsible for the disappearances. There are fears that people subjected to enforced disappearances from Pakistan-Administered Kashmir may have been detained in military-run internment centers in Pakistan," it added.

The UN body has said "authorities in Gilgit-Baltistan continue to use the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 (ATA) to target political activists, human rights defenders and student protesters."

Responding to the report, Pakistan welcomed the OHCHR’s recommendation for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the “gross and systematic human rights violations in Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir”.

“We would like to reiterate that there is simply no parallel between the horrendous human rights situation in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the prevailing environment in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan […] AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan remain open to foreign visitors,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office said in a statement.

“The only solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is to grant the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IoK) the legitimate Right to self-determination as recognized by the numerous United Nations Security Council Resolutions, which is essential for the security and stability of South Asia and beyond,” the statement said.

Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.

Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire came into effect in 2003.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.