EU slams Pak over J&K terrorism

[Contrarian]

EU slams Pak over J&K terrorism
Monday, April 02, 2007 07:29:52 am

In a historic first that marks a major victory for Indian diplomacy, the 27-member European Union has accused Pakistan of funding and arming terror groups in Pakistan on its own soil to cause the death of innocents in Jammu and Kashmir.

The EU's severe indictment is contained in a report on Kashmir and will provide fire-power to New Delhi to rebuff Pakistan's efforts to distance itself from accusations that it sponsors cross-border terror.

An amended European Union report on Kashmir has
asked Pakistan to disarm militants, shut down terrorist training camps, end the flow of weapons and money to the Taliban and other militants based in Pakistani territory, and it also accuses Pakistan-based militant groups Lashker-e-Taiba and Harkatul Mujahideen of continuing operations in Kashmir.

Ironically, the European Union report comes on the day when Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf asked his chosen men, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Foreign Minister Kurshid Kasuri to needle India by raising the Kashmir bogey once again during the SAARC summit level talks.

On Sunday (April 1), Aziz said, "SAARC has a lot of potential. But dispute resolution, particularly the Kashmir issue and peace and harmony, is a must to realise this potential."

But after the EU report, Aziz may have to eat his words. It's not just the damning observations but the words that are written into the fine print that are bound to cause Pakistan much embarrassment.

The EU report reads, "Without an end to terrorism, there can be no real progress towards a political solution or in improving the economic situation of the population of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has provided Kashmiri militants with training, weapons, funding and sanctuary and has failed to hold the militants accountable for atrocities they have committed on the Indian-administered side."

The report couldn't have come at a better time for India. Its possible that New Delhi, that was initially caught unawares by Aziz's broadside, will now use the Kashmir issue to score critical brownie points over Pakistan.

Already a combative New Delhi said that India will take up the issue of terror in Jammu and Kashmir during the SAARC meet.

The EU report, a historic first, could mark a major turning point in the West's perception of the Kashmir issue.

Even during the height of the Kargil war, the international community never fully endorsed India's allegation that Pakistan was sponsoring militancy in Kashmir.

Could this report finally do what India has only been able to do with limited success over the last five decades - project Pakistan as the aggressor in Jammu and Kashmir?

http://www.timesnow.tv/articleshow/1842377.cms

 

[Keysersoze]

A major story that seems to be reported exactly nowhere else

 

[Keysersoze]

Wait I found something~!

The European Parliament took another firm step towards propagation of democratic institutions and safe-guarding human rights principles on March 21 as the Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) gave its nod to the draft report on Kashmir titled, “Kashmir: Present Situation and Future Prospects.” Commenting on the vote, Baroness Emma Nicholson, rapporteur of the report told journalists, “I am very pleased indeed that we succeeded in having the vote.”
Pointing out that some British Members of European Parliament (MEPs) had even declared that the vote will not take place, Nicholson said, “They had declared the vote will not happen, it will not happen in two months or three years and that the report will be crushed completely and I will be dismissed.”
Nicholson, herself a British Liberal MEP, added with a smile, “Today’s vote is a triumph and exactly correct. Now we look forward to the plenary session. The report has been battered but I think it has emerged stronger. It had a fantastic majority.”
Sixty members of the AFET voted in favour of the report following 28 compromise proposals, only one voted against and 11 abstained. The amended report will now go before the plenary of the European Parliament (EP) for approval in May.there are 87 members just for the UK so that tells you how many people voted!
Nicholson noted that the draft report has been modified by a number of amendments but the substance of the report remains unchanged. The most controversial clause in the report on plebiscite in Kashmir, however, appears to have been diluted.
“I am checking now what exactly has happened. We have put in that the conditions for the plebiscite have not been met,” said Nicholson.
Pakistan and Pakistani-backed Kashmiri groups had been doing intense lobbying to amend the report, which criticised the democracy-deficit in Pakistan and the human rights situation in the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir. “We support the peace process, we are against the plebiscite in principle but we believe in the right of self-determination,” said Nicholson.
The original draft report had said that “continuing calls for a plebiscite on the final status of Jammu and Kashmir are wholly out of step with the needs of the local people and thus damaging to their interests.” Dr. Charles Tannock, spokesperson for the British Conservative party and shadow rapporteur of the Kashmir report said he has been in “favour of changing the tone of the report to get rid of the more offensive and insulting part, but I see the essential substance of the report is in tact.”
The report, he said, condemns cross-border terrorism and says that conditions for plebiscite have not been met so there cannot be a plebiscite on this issue. “I am absolutely sure that those who lost today, particularly lobbies and people who feel strongly about the report tried to kill the report. It was a disgrace that in the Pakistani press it was reported that there will not be a vote today and that they are going to kill the report,” Tannock told INEP.
He noted that till the last moment there were moves to postpone the voting. Tannock who described himself as is a friend of India said, “I am 75 percent satisfied, not 100 percent,” with the adopted report.
According to EP sources, British MEP Richard Howitt of the Socialist Group had done intense lobbying in the last two days to postpone the voting and kill the report. Most of the MEPs interested in the Kashmir report are British who have large Pakistani, Indian and Kashmiri communities in their constituencies back home.
Sajjad Karim, Liberal British MEP, said there has “been some movement in the right direction.” “We have the plenary to vote yet to take place in May. I think there is a need to bring further amendments. It is for that reason that I abstained from voting in support of the report,” said Karim, who is of Pakistani origin.So there is yet another vote!
Karim said that his amendment proposal to include that plebiscite is the main ambition of the people of Kashmir was rejected. Karim said he will try to include this amendment during the plenary vote in the EP in May.
The final draft report on Kashmir produced by the Committee will only be available after a week. However, the EP’s press service released parts of the amended Kashmir report March 22. The report says that the “resolution of the continuing conflict along the LoC can best be achieved jointly by a constant engagement between the governments of India and Pakistan, involving the peoples of all parts of the former princely state.” It also commends both countries on the peace moves underway, and welcomes the restoration of bilateral talks.
The report reaffirms that “all peoples have the inalienable right of self-determination,” while pointing to the fact that “the pre-conditions for using the plebiscite have not been met at present.”
Stressing that India and Pakistan (along with China) are both important EU partners, the committee also noted that “India is the world’s largest secular democracy and has devolved democratic structures at all levels,” while “Pakistan still lacks full implementation of democracy in Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), ... has yet to take steps towards democracy in Gilgit and Baltistan.”
It says that “President Musharraf has not been able to implement his undertaking made in 1999 that ‘the armed forces have no intention of staying in charge any longer than is absolutely necessary to pave the way for true democracy to flourish in Pakistan.’”
The report calls on Pakistan to ensure free and fair elections in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Gilgit and Baltistan. The report also expresses concern at “documented human rights violations by Pakistan” in Gilgit and Baltistan, and at reports of torture and mistreatment, discrimination, and corruption in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
It also calls on the Indian government to “put an end to all practices of extrajudicial killings, ‘disappearances’, torture and arbitrary detention in Jammu and Kashmir,” and to establish an independent commission of inquiry into serious violations of human rights by Indian security forces.
The Committee calls on both governments to allow international human rights groups access to the region for investigations.
Barrister Majid Tramboo, who heads the Brussels-based Kashmir Centre, said there “is some improvement and some grey areas which we will clean up during the plenary period.” The text has been improved dramatically so our right of self-determination has been mentioned, said Tramboo, who has been leading the campaign to get the report changed.
Sunil Prasad, President of the Global Organisation for People of Indian Origin in Belgium (GOPIO) and Secretary General Europe India Chamber of Commerce General-Secretary, said “the passing of the report itself is a big achievement for India.” “It is a victory for the people of Kashmir and their aspirations. It is a victory for Indian diplomacy,” he told INEP. The Pakistan Observer newspaper, in a news item published on January 16, reported that a vast majority of the amendments received were from Pakistan-backed Kashmiri groups. “The EU report on Kashmir triggered an immediate response from Pakistan, which set up a high-profile team to tackle the situation… the job of lobbying to seek amendments in the EU draft report was handed over to ISI (Pakistan’s intelligence service),” said the paper.
Majid Tramboo was assigned the task of lobbying by Pakistan, wrote the paper, cited by INEP. The report would have got adopted earlier in January but a flood of amendments numbering 450 forced the postponement of the same.

So in conclusion the whole EU parliment is regarded pretty poorly here... and no one really gives a monkey's fart about it

 

[EagleEyes]

It was unbelievable at first. Now it is believable.

 

[kidwaibhai]

Oh my god the indians are amazing spin masters. I truely have emmense respect for all the indian press. I just hope pakistani media stops being so critical of the government all the time. oh wait a minute that is what the media is supposed to do be a watch dog for the people not a medium who upeases nationalism.