Two civilian massacres in the past two days have shown how human rights abuses are fueling the conflict in Kashmir, Human Rights Watch said today.
In one instance, twelve Hindu laborers were killed, apparently by Muslim militants, on June 29. On June 28, seventeen members of three families of suspected militants were killed, reportedly by militia forces working with Indian security forces.
Human Rights Watch condemned the killings and called on the international community to put pressure on India and Pakistan-backed militants to end the abuses.
"The international community is treating Kashmir as though it were a political crisis that emerged from nowhere,"said Patricia Gossman, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "By ignoring the human rights dimension of the conflict, international diplomacy to end the fighting in Kashmir is bound to fail."
Human Rights Watch urged the United Nations Security Council to call on both India and Pakistan not just to step back from the Line of Control but to end their abusive practices on the ground and allow U.N. human rights investigators full access to the region. In addition, the U.S., Japan and other major investors and donors should make loans to Pakistan contingent on its cutting its support for the militants. Similar pressure should be placed on India to curb the killings and torture, including criminal prosecutions of soldiers who have murdered and raped, and officials who have ordered the killing of human rights activists.
The killings represent only the latest of the atrocities that have characterized the decade-long conflict in Kashmir. In their effort to curb support for pro-independence militants, Indian security forces have resorted to extrajudicial executions, "disappearances," torture, and rape. Widespread arbitrary arrests and collective punishments have further alienated many Kashmiris.
At the same time, militant groups have massacred Hindu civilians and have kidnapped and killed civil servants and suspected informers. These actions, together with the fact that many of the militants are crossing into India from Pakistan, have raised fears that tensions in the region could erupt into full-scale war.
Human Rights Watch said that India must end its practice of "disappearing," torturing and murdering suspected militants, while Islamabad must withdraw its support from militant groups who are terrorizing towns and villages on the Indian side of the border.
On the night of June 29, suspected militants entered a factory in Anantnag district, south of the capital, Srinagar, and shot dead twelve Hindu construction workers as they slept. The victims were migrant laborers from the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The killings coincided with the visit of India's Home Minister, L. K. Advani, who arrived in Srinagar Wednesday for a briefing on India's offensive against militant forces occupying strategic sites on the Indian side of the Line of Control near Kargil.
The killings may have been carried out in retaliation for the June 28 killings of seventeen members of three families, including five women and seven children, in the Surankote area of Punch. A woman who was critically injured was hospitalized. The gunmen entered the houses during the night and shot the victims as they slept. Explosions rocked the houses of the victims following the killings. Blaming the security forces, local villagers set up road blockades to protest the killings.
For Further Information:
Patricia Gossman 202 612 4343
