A delegation of Kashmiri human rights organisations from both sides of the cease-fire line addressed the 52nd Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights held in Geneva from 18th to April 26th, 1996. The members of this delegation gave detailed testimonies of crimes against humanity perpetrated by Indian occupation forces against the innocent people of Kashmir.

Members of the delegation were Ghulam Mohammad Safi, Secretary General of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Abdul Rashid Turabi, President of the Jamaat-e-Islami Azad Kashmir, Mumtaz Ahmed Wani, Kashmir Bar Association, Dr. Hamida Bano, University of Kashmir, Syed Nazir Ahmed Gilani, Abdul Majid Banday, Ms. Shamim Shawl, Ms. Attiya Inayatullah, and others.

The delegation told members of the conference that they had made a long and difficult journey to speak to the distinguished members of the Commission. Mr. Ghulam Mohammad Safi told the participants that as Secretary General of the APHC [the organisation which brings together 34 political parties and groups representing the entire spectrum of political opinion of the people of Kashmir] he is speaking on behalf of the people of Kashmir from both sides of the cease-fire line.

Speaking on item 7 of the agenda, he said: "I am here to plead the case of thirteen million people of Jammu and Kashmir, a land referred to in the official U.N. maps as a "Disputed Territory" and not an integral part of any member state of the United Nations. The presence of a U.N. Military Observer Group along a cease-fire line in Jammu and Kashmir bears further testimony to the disputed nature of the entire territory whose final disposition as established by numerous Security Council and U.N. Commission on Indian and Pakistan resolutions is to be decided by none else but the people of Kashmir in a U.N. supervised plebiscite with an administrator nominated by the U.N. Secretary General."

Mr. Safi said, "we [the people of Kashmir] are dismayed by the lack of action from world powers to help stop the carnage in a U.N. recognised disputed territory and by their virtual indifference to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. The disparity between their inaction and their repeated assertion that 'the protection of human rights and encouragement of democratic development are their major foreign policy goals' is hard for us to understand. Nevertheless, we still have confidence that they will realise that what is at stake in the dispute is not only our peoples' survival but peace in the populous region of South Asia and also the basis of a civilised world order."

Addressing the August Commission under agenda item 15, he said that in the last session of the Sub-Commission, Jalil Andrabi had spoken eloquently under agenda item 10. While making his statement he had uttered these prophetic words: "The arbitrary powers conferred upon the armed forces with virtual impunity from any legal action, are a part of deliberate Indian State policy, wherein, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, extra-judicial execution, killings of civilians and unarmed peaceful demonstrators have been used as a weapon of war. The motive behind these crimes against humanity is to force the Kashmiri people to abandon their struggle for the fundamental human rights of self-determination." Little did Jalil realise that the extra-judicial killing he had so clearly described would one day be his fate. He had to be silenced. He had the dangerous gift of eloquence from a mouth that told nothing but the truth.

"The mental and psychological trauma of a displaced person can only be imagined and not felt because only when one passes through such an experience personally can one feel the pain. It is said that a displaced person remains only half-a-person. The other half of his personality remains stuck in the soil that he is forced to flee. This is precisely the fate of the displaced persons of Kashmir," said Mr. Abdul Majid Banday, while speaking on item-9(D).

Ms. Shamim Shawl addressing the Commission under agenda item 8, began by referring to a pain which I deem as strictly personal. "My elder brother Ghulam Mohammad Mir was arrested by Indian occupation forces on February 13, 1995. A FIR was registered with the Police Station Armpora, Sopore, against 65th Battalion of Border Security Force (BSF). Mr. Gupta, Inspector Pathak and Balakram carried my brother away and killed him in custody. My home people received his dead body within twenty-four hours." An affidavit filed by Mala Qadir, son of Mala Khizer, resident of Gous Abbad Malroad, Sopore, stated, "I was sitting outside my house on Monday 13 February 1995. At 1.30 p.m., four military jeeps and one truck stopped at a distance of five hundred feet from my house. BSF personnel jumped out. Two civilians, Ghulam Mohammad Mir and Bashir Ahmad Bhat, were brought out. They took them to a-near-by-house belonging to Mala Muhammad and Alias Dakwala. The house was under construction. Within minutes, BSF personnel shot them dead. We trembled inside our houses. After sometime we saw the dead bodies of the two persons which were dropped in the truck. All the neighbours of the area went inside the house, we saw the blood spilled all over. The BSF personnel came back along with dead bodies and some high ranking officials. A video camera was used for taking the photographs. All this, I saw with my own eyes."

Mr. Mumtaz Ahmed Wani, speaking on item 10 of agenda, said, the most fundamental and moral question is, "are we [Kashmiris] not entitled as a people to live a life of peace and prosperity without being subjected to massive human rights violations, curfews, cordon-and-search operations, rape as an instrument of war, extra-judicial killings and arbitrary detention?"

"I invite the United Nations to take 'appropriate action' as provided in the Genocide Convention of 1951 for withdrawal of all draconian emergency regulations and stoppage of genocidal acts in Indian occupied Kashmir. Today, the whole valley is drenched with blood of innocent people, with the anguish and pain of a tortured nation and a shame which comes from the barbarity of war crimes. It is a legitimate expectation that through this Commission, the United Nations is called upon to establish a War Crimes Tribunal to take to task the culprits of this uncivilised conduct. India is at war in Kashmir, a war of occupation across borders and a war of heinous crimes," said Ms. Attiya Inayatullah, while addressing the Commission on agenda item 10.

Mr. Nazir Gilani speaking on agenda item 7, said that the Indian security forces, are not at war with the people, but at war with the regional peace, at war with their commitments to the world community and at a war with their abridged role in Kashmir. Should the Indian State have a space to hurt the humanity in Kashmir or that the State be encouraged to comply with her international obligations on Kashmir?

"Anyone who stands up and speaks for the rights of the Kashmiris, either disappears or is jailed or murdered, sometimes openly, at other times while in custody. The murderers are left free to continue their macabre dance of death. The entire Valley of Kashmir and large parts of the State are today disfigured by army interrogation centres, chambers of torture and detention camps. There are more than 600,000 Indian soldiers in an area no larger than 85 miles long and 40 miles across. This has no precedence in history. There is one Indian soldier to every six Kashmiris," said Dr. Hamida Bano while speaking on agenda item 8.

She choose to conclude her testimony with a short poem written by the Kashmiri poet Parwaiz Naqash to describe the misery and desolation that have become synonymous with his homeland:

See the dance of death and destruction

Smell the stench of charred human flesh

Come to Kashmir

Where the mangled bodies of newly-born babies bear testimony

To man's cruelty to a man.

Where young girls are raped, and

Their bosoms ripped apart

Where it is a crime to be young

Because if you are young

You are fit to be slain.