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Amnesty Criticizes Immunity for Indian Troops in Kashmir
NEW DELHI, Aug 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Amnesty International (AI) criticized an Indian government proposal to grant immunity to security personnel who violate human rights in Kashmir and northeastern India, news agencies reported Monday.
"No one should be allowed to operate outside the law. Any proposal to allow security forces to commit human rights violations with impunity is unacceptable," the human rights organization said in an open letter to Indian Home Minister L.K. Advani, which was carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Both the Indian constitution and international human rights law make no room for amnesties for grave human rights violations, such as torture, which constitute crimes under international law," the London-based group said in a statement received in New Delhi.
Last week, Advani said the federal government was seriously considering granting a "general amnesty" to Indian military personnel facing human rights abuse charges in Kashmir and the northeastern part of India, where at least 30 self-determination groups are active.
Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah ordering police to register cases against "violators of human rights, however highly placed they might be," AFP reported.
"Human rights violators will be dealt with according to the law," said Abdullah, describing human rights abuses as a "heinous crime against humanity."
A senior member of Abdullah's National Conference party, Ghulam Nabi Shaheeh, said Friday that the Kashmir government would oppose Advani's plan "tooth and nail."
Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned violations of human rights by Indian forces in Kashmir, including the practice of extrajudicial executions and illegal detentions.
Human rights activists in Kashmir and the Indian northeast also criticized the Indian government's proposal to grant amnesty to members of its military forces facing charges of rights violations in disputed areas of the country, news agencies reported.
"If people who have indulged in grave human rights violations are spared, it will be very painful for the families who have suffered," said Parveena Ahanger, of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) in Kashmir, whose son disappeared in 1990 after the Indian army arrested him.
"If this happens, security forces will get license to kill innocents at will. You are straight away telling the troops go and kill people, you will not be accountable," she added.
Around 400 members of India's military forces in Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both, are facing prosecution for human rights offenses against Kashmiri Muslims.
Kashmir's main opposition group, the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), said Advani's proposal was anti-Muslim.
"The statement is loaded with anti-Muslim sentiments," AFP quoted Abbas Ansari, acting chairman of the APHC, as saying.
"It is an open war against the Muslims of Kashmir as we have been the worst sufferers of human rights violations at the hands of security forces," Abbas added.
But, Indian military forces defended the move.
"It will certainly boost our morale," said Rudre Pal Singh, Intelligence Chief of the Border Security Force (BSF).
"Slapping of cases of rights violations acts as a big handicap in our fight against militants," he added.
Pressure groups in the northeast also criticized Advani's proposal, said AFP.
"The government's decision would allow the troops to commit excesses, with the people's basic rights bound to be affected," said Khaidem Mani Singh, a rights activist in the northeastern state of Manipur.
"No one is above the law, and troops are not supposed to be excluded from the purview of the law of the land," he added.
An estimated 1,000 cases of rights violations by troops were reported in the northeast during the past ten years. "The number could be even more as many cases were not reported by villagers who are ignorant of the laws," he said.
"On the one hand, you have the fundamental rights of the people, and on the other, you have the security of the state. It is a very delicate and sensitive issue and needs proper deliberations," said Moni Sena Singh, chairman of the Assam Human Rights Commission.
The demands of groups in the region range from secession, to greater autonomy, to the right to self-determination.
India's central government granted extended powers earlier this month to military forces and police in mainly Muslim Kashmir in order to "quell" the Islamic resistance there, according to AFP.
Indian forces now have full powers to arrest suspects without a warrant, carry out searches and cordon operations in Jammu and other regions in Kashmir, the ministry official said.
These powers were invoked in 1990 in the northern sections of Kashmir, where a military crackdown against resistance movement has left at least 70,000 people dead.
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