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U.S. Kashmiri Leader Calls For Immediate Dialogue
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| Fai: "Is it a crime
to become masters of our own destiny?"
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By
Ayub Khan
IOL
Washington correspondent
CHICAGO,
Feb. 27 (IslamOnline) - A peaceful resolution of the Kashmir conflict is the
need of the hour and in the interest of all the contending parties, Ghulam Nabi
Fai, Executive Director of the Washington-based Kashmiri American Council said
on Monday. He was speaking at Northwestern University's Norris Center at a
lecture organized by the Muslim-Cultural Students Association.
Fai
said that Kashmir’s thirteen million people must be allowed to decide their
own future. "Is it a crime to become masters of our own destiny?" he
asked, saying that the international community and U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan have done nothing to achieve sustainable peace in the valley, stressing
the need for international mediation, as there is not even a semblance of trust
between India and Pakistan.
He
said that despite suggestions by Senator Joe Lieberman and U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell, the United States has yet to appoint a special envoy to
Kashmir, due to India's continued opposition. "Slobodan Milosovic also said
‘No’ to international intervention in the Kosovo conflict and yet [the]
United States intervened. Why not do the same in Kashmir?" Fai questioned.
Fai
dismissed charges the Kashmiri people were “fundamentalists” and
“terrorists”, saying that Kashmiri culture is beyond any religion. The
forefathers of the Kashmiri freedom struggle were Hindus like Prime Minister R.
C. Kak and author Prem Nath Bazzaz, he added.
He
proposed three conditions for a meaningful dialogue on Kashmir. The first
condition calls for the announcement of ceasefire by both the separatists, as
well as the Indian government. He then says that Pakistan, India and the
representatives of the Kashmir freedom movement must go to the negotiating table
without any preconditions. Finally, the third party should mediate the dialogue.
Fai
said that third party could be United States, United Nations or a person of
international standing like former U.S. president Jimmy Carter or Nelson
Mandela.
He
added that peace in the Kashmir valley would be a win-win situation for all the
parties involved, while also reducing defense expenditures of both India and
Pakistan.
At
the lecture, members of Indo-American Kashmir Forum, representing the Hindu
minority in Kashmir, distributed propaganda material despite warnings from
organizers to call security.
Included
in the propaganda packet was a clearly doctored flier they claimed was pasted on
the houses of Hindus in Kashmir by an organization called "Allah
Tigers." The three-sentence flier written in Urdu contains spelling
mistakes of even simple words.
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