On the occasion of the G-7 Lyon Summit (June 27-29), the Kashmiri-Canadian Council (KCC) urged leaders of the G-7 countries and the President of European Commission to mediate the Kashmir dispute.

Mr. Mushtaq A. Jeelani, Executive Director of KCC, in separate letters to US President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister John Major, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and the President of the European Commission Jacques Santer, expressed his grave concern about the current situation in Kashmir.

The G-7 leaders are meeting in Lyon at a time when the world is witnessing extraordinary progress in resolving age-old global conflicts, including disputes in the former Yugoslavia, Middle East, and Northern Ireland. While the contribution of those directly involved should be appreciated, nonetheless, in all cases, progress would not have been made without the intervention of the international community - especially, the Western industrialised nations. Similarly, without the leadership of the G-7 nations, progress will not be made in resolving the Kashmir crisis.

Mr. Jeelani warned the leaders that the Kashmir dispute remains a tinderbox in South Asia, unfolding a great human tragedy for 13 million Kashmiris. Kashmir's status quo could ignite renewed warfare between India and Pakistan, both possessing nuclear weapons capability, and destabilise South Asia with unforeseeable international consequences. He called on leaders of the G-7 to address this issue in full cognisance of the Kashmiri people's right and dignity.

Over the past seven years, the international community has stood on the sidelines allowing the situation in Kashmir to deteriorate. Since October 1989, a mass uprising has taken firm root and the entire population is in revolt against Indian occupation. What started as a peaceful protest movement demanding implementation of the UN resolutions of 1948 and 1949, which gave the people of Jammu and Kashmir their right of self-determination, has now turned into a full-scale insurrection. The Indian response to this protest has been extremely bloody. The crimes committed by the Indian occupation forces, numbering well over 600,000, have reached genocidal proportions, presenting the worst example of state-sponsored terrorism in this once peaceful spot of the world.

He urged the leaders that "the G-7 Summit in Lyon should demand an international investigation into the ongoing hostage crisis in Kashmir, the brutal assassination of human rights activist (Jalil Andrabi), and the establishment of an international tribunal for Kashmir along the lines of that set for former Yugoslavia."

The Executive Director reminded the leaders that India disregarded world opinion on its missile programme and deployment of "Prithvi," which is fuelling further instability in South Asia. Last year a global conference decided to extend the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) indefinitely, laying the foundation for a nuclear-free world in the 21st century. However, India ignored the concerns of the international community to save South Asia from an arms race and reaffirmed its long-standing refusal to stay out of the NPT. And now, India refuses to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Further nuclear tests by India could destabilise the region and pave the way for a disastrous nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir. The G-7 leaders at the Lyon Summit should consider immediate action against India, as the international community did to South Africa in 1977, to stop all nuclear tests. India must be warned about the heavy penalties it would pay for repeating the underground test of 1974.

How much blood must be spilled in Kashmir before the international community will acknowledge the conviction of the Kashmiri people to seek the implementation of United Nations resolutions? The more pain inflicted upon Kashmiris, the more pain the region will experience. That is the bottom line.

Given the G-7 leaders' interest in peace and stability in the region and their support for democracy and freedom, the KCC urged them to press for a peaceful political solution to the conflict and end the misery in Kashmir.