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Voices of Peace
Vol. VI
Kashmir Crisis
Introduction to significant articles with their links.
Kashmiri journalist Muzamil Jaleel examines some of the suggested
solutions to the long
standing dispute between India and Pakistan
A Guide to Kashmir Peace Plans
by Muzamil Jaleel
Tuesday January 22, 2002
"For centuries, poets and travellers called Kashmir a paradise on Earth. But
the paradise has become a tragic problem - a problem so complex that two countries
have fought three wars over it in 50 years. Nothing divides India and Pakistan as
Kashmir does, and nobody has suffered more in the process than the people of Kashmir.
For the time being, India and Pakistan seem to have miraculously escaped from another
war, with tensions apparently eased at the borders. But the threat of a nuclear conflagration
in the subcontinent reminds the world of the urgency of a resolution to this vexed
problem. There have been nearly 40 official proposals for a solution, but not a single
plan has yet been acceptable to all parties.
Kashmir's fate is still locked into the story of India's partition in 1947, when
Pakistan was carved out as a home for Indian Muslims. The first war between the two
countries was fought within months of their independence, while their armed forces
were still under the command of British officers. Kashmir was divided - and remains
divided - between the two countries.
India claims that Muslim-dominated Kashmir is an integral part of the country, a
cornerstone of its secular democracy. Pakistan sees Kashmir as its "jugular
vein" and believes its merger into Pakistan is simply an unfinished task of
partition. As for the Kashmiris themselves, most would like to be left alone by both
sides..."
To read more go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/kashmir/Story/0,2763,637624,00.html
Muzamil Jaleel is a Srinagar-based journalist with the Indian
Express. Muzamil Jaleel grew up in the
meadows and mountains of Kashmir. Then he saw friends and family die in its pursuit
of independence.
His country has become a battlefield - and he knows it can never be the same.
see
My Lost Country
by Muzamil Jaleel
More of this story and other links at The
Guardian Sunday Observer
Sunday June 2, 2002
The Observer
India and Pakistan could be just hours away from a fight feared
by the entire planet.
Nuclear Neighbours Teeter on Brink of Armageddon
by Jason Burke and Peter Beaumont
"Tonight, in the forests of Kashmir, figures will be moving in the darkness.
They are fighters using terrorism to overthrow Indian rule in the disputed state.
New Delhi says these militants take their orders directly from Islamabad. The Pakistanis
say they are independent. Neither claim, according to inquiries by The Observer,
is accurate. And it is through the gap between these stories that 1.25 billion people
could fall into a nuclear nightmare.
This weekend tens of thousands of soldiers, hundreds of tanks, armoured vehicles
and artillery pieces are being readied for war. The Pakistanis have withdrawn troops
from their western frontier, where they were deployed against al-Qaeda, and sent
them to face the Indians... There has been no attempt to initiate a dialogue involving
the Kashmiri separatist leadership. India doesn't want to imply acceptance of Kashmir's
independence; Pakistan says Kashmiris must choose between India and Pakistan.
And so they go on suffering in a dispute over which they have no control. And that
is why they turn to war as the last desperate hope of convincing the world that it
must twist the arms of the nuclear neighbours from hell and arrive at a resolution
of the problem once and for all"... More of this story at The
Guardian /Sunday Observer
Online debate: what hope is there for Kashmir?.
http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,648118,00.html
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