An Open Letter to President Barack Obama

To the Honourable Mr President,
President Barack Hussein Obama.

We wish you are in the best of health and high-spirits.

Mr. President, we are writing to you as a group of concerned American, foreign, and Pakistani students who would like to bring your attention to the world’s longest-standing flashpoint. It is our belief that a watershed has been reached where some common-sense needs to prevail in South Asia with regards to India-Pakistan relations. We recognize and appreciate some of the statements that you have made with regards to that but we urge you to accept with utmost seriousness that the Kashmir Dispute has lingered on for far too long. We ask you to offer the best of your offices to facilitate and mediate a resolution to the disputed conflict of Jammu and Kashmir.

For over 60 years, the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been a source of intense bitterness and discord between India and Pakistan.

In 1947, after the Partition of the British colony of India, Kashmir’s Maharajah ceded to the Indian Union under questionable circumstances. However, the principle enshrined in the Partition of British India was that ascension was to be based on the notion of Muslim-majority provinces & princely states be given to Pakistan while Hindu-majority territories would form India.

There was also the Princely State of Hyderabad, a state with a Muslim Nawab and a Hindu majority. Indian Armed Forces annexed the Princely State of Hyderabad through the illegal use of force on the logic that Hyderabad was Hindu-majority even though the Nawab had expressed his intentions of joining Pakistan. Similar, was the fate of the state of Junagardh.

On hearing the news of the Maharajah of Kashmir joining the Indian Union without the consent of the Kashmiri masses – an undemocratic move indeed – the populace of the state and adjoining areas revolted against the Maharajah. This meant Pakistan and India were juxtaposed for their first war that neither side had wanted. While for India this was tantamount to land grab, for Pakistan this was an attempt to defend its very rationale for existence as a state.

Mr. President, Resolution 47 of the United Nations Security Council, passed in 1948, stands as a source of truth and justice to resolve this dispute between India and Pakistan. This is in line with the long standing principle that has held the international system together since Westphalia – the right to self-determination.

India claims to be the world’s largest democracy, then why, we ask, does it not adhere to the words of its own co-founding father, Jawaharlal Nehru who affirmed his faith in a free and fair plebiscite to let the Kashmiris decide their fate? Why, we ask, has the international community and more importantly America been silent to this gross violation of the ‘self-determination’ principle of International Relations?

Mr President, just like the founding fathers of the United States of America made innumerable sacrifices by raising voice against the tyranny of the monarchy and for exercising their right to self-determination, do the people of Kashmir not deserve that same unalienable right to rid themselves of a tyrannical rule that they have never accepted?

Mr. President, Pakistanis and Kashmiris are only seeking what is just and fair. The Pakistani state and people have been long-standing allies of the United States and its peoples. We joined forces with your nation to defeat the threat of Communism in Afghanistan. What did we receive in return? A humiliating Pressler Amendment which crippled our defence needs based on arbitrary, unilateral and comatose efforts by lobbyists.

Mr. President, we consider this our duty to point out to you that Pakistan did not introduce nuclear weapons to South Asia – our neighbour to the east did. Now we watch in deep horror as America gifts our eastern neighbour with nuclear technology and next generation reactors even though India has not ratified either the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty or the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. This is a clear break from tradition when America believed in the power of treaty and customary laws.

Such provisions also challenge America’s long standing position of being ‘fair’ to both nuclear states in the subcontinent. However, now Pakistan is being denied this fairness and just treatment even though we carry the tag of a ‘Major Non-NATO Ally’.

Mr. President, coming to the War on Terror, how many Americans are aware that 8000 Pakistani civilians have lost their lives last year as a result of terrorist attacks? Do the think-tanks that churn out anti-Pakistan rhetoric not see the price being paid by Pakistan or are they oblivious to glaring harsh and documented realities?

Pakistan has become the frontline state in the War on Terror yet we receive a paltry amount of development aid and security aid that is not enough to tackle a hardened Taliban insurgency and growing economic crisis that the world financial crisis has triggered. Pakistan lacks duty-free access to American and European markets. Such provisions would allow for economic liberty to emerge with a new dynamic in our country and hence reduce the threat posed by extremism. We point these issues, along with Kashmir flashpoint out to open some eyes in Washington to the dilemmas that plague South Asia that if left unattended could well converge into a mega issue which can cause rapid destabilization of the region while spiraling in to a major international crisis.

Respected Sir, you may not be aware, but India has defaulted on its pledge to the international community, to Pakistan, to the People of Kashmir, and to human conscience; for it has failed to carry out the plebiscite which it had agreed to under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 47.

Sir, are you aware of what is really happening in Kashmir? Mr. President, 100,000 civilians have lost their lives in the conflict which began in the early 1990′s as a result of a heavy presence of Indian occupying forces and their brutal methods in the occupied state. The Indian mainland has actively engaged in attempts to alter the natural demographics of the Kashmir Valley. Over 50,000 Kashmiri Hindus have fled the valley, as a result of increased communal tensions due to India’s denial of a plebiscite to Kashmiris – communal violence that plagues India proper as well. This is not of Pakistan’s doing, but India’s abject failure; for this adamant daughter of a once wise civilization denies Kashmir her democratic rights.

This past summer of 2008, Kashmiri separatists eschewed violence in favour for peaceful non-violent protests. Hundreds and thousands of Kashmiris, upwards of half a million poured out on to the streets to protest Indian rule. The result? Indian security forces gunned down 70 unarmed protesters in broad daylight. For the past 60 years, India’s Independence Day is marked as a ‘Black Day’ by Kashmiris as they hoist black flags in defiance to illegal Indian rule. One only needs to look at reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to discover the plethora of evidence of Indian atrocities, not to forget the discovery of thousands of unmarked mass graves in Indian-occupied Kashmir in mid-2008.

India also continues to plan and build mega-dam projects that are a blatant violation of the standards laid down by the Indus River Water Treaty between itself and Pakistan. This has resulted in Pakistan’s two most important rivers, the Chenab and the Ravi, being choked as India illegally tampers with the water topography of Kashmir. This has started to pose acute problems and threatens the very existence of Pakistan’s agriculture-based economy. It also threatens two of Pakistan’s provinces with acute water shortages and the Pakistani people at large. This also affects Pakistan’s hydroelectricity generation capacity – already plagued by acute energy crisis – further damaging our capacity to ensure economic liberty and the prospect of upward social mobility. Does the United States not see these violations?

Mr. President, we want the People of Pakistan and the People of Kashmir – whether the latter chooses independence or union with Pakistan – to have every right to exercise their aspirations whether that is to live with human dignity and/or the right to upward social mobility. The current conflict has taken a heavy toll on the Pakistani masses while also resulting in unimaginable suffering for the Kashmiri masses. We can forgive those who have been afraid of the dark in the past and have not embraced rationality, but we cannot forgive those who are afraid to accept the light. The light, Mr. President, is democracy. This has two loose ends that will have to be tied up. America has to give up its love affair with dictatorships in Pakistan and Kashmir has to be entitled to a democratic exercise to determine its own destiny. Freedom beckons for Kashmir as Kashmir bleeds under the yoke of a million-strong illegal Indian military occupation. You alluded to Iran unclenching its fist, but what about India unclenching not just its fist but unloading that shotgun it has placed on the heart of Kashmir?

We ask upon you to fix this historic injustice and to allow the people of Kashmir to exercise their unalienable right to self-determination and democratic exercise to choose their own destiny, whether it be with India, Pakistan, or as a free nation-state in the comity of Nations – such as Kosovo has done. Sir, you are in a position to act. Mr. President, prove to us the merit of playing by the rules and set a strong precedent that the international system can work for the weak as well and not just the strong. Because sooner or later, if the prospect is not shown to the masses that the international system supports justice and not just narrowly defined self-interests and profits, then playing by the rules will seem distasteful and paradoxical as we would have come to the realization that we are not considered part of the game.

P.S: Please see the thousands of signatures and more profoundly a light we have lit for you on this website; www.plebiscitekashmir.com

Regards ,

Authors: Haroon S. Ellahi Shaikh and Saad Syed
Society For Plebiscite Against Occupation