In Kashmir, Separatists Buoyed by Caucasian Breakaways

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In Kashmir, Separatists Buoyed by Caucasian Breakaways
Thursday, September 11, 2008
By Baba Umar

Srinagar, India (CNSNews.com) – Citing “inspiration” from recent events in the Caucasus, separatists in Kashmir say independence bids by South Ossetia and Abkhazia have strengthened their determination to attain independence for the disputed Himalayan region.

Following its brief war with Georgia, Russia on Aug. 26 recognized the two rebel regions as independent, drawing an angry reaction from the West. To date only Nicaragua has added its recognition, but Belarus indicated that it may follow suit later this month.

The two regions’ independence declaration “is a psychological inspiration for the suppressed people of Kashmir,” said Yasin Malik, leader of the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).

The move had strengthened Kashmiris’ “resolve to achieve independence from India,” he said.

Kashmir, a majority Muslim region, is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both. (India and China also have a separate territorial dispute in part of Kashmir.) The conflict between India and Pakistan has triggered two of the three wars fought between them since they won independence from Britain.

A nearly two-decade revolt by separatist insurgents fighting to end Indian control has left at least 70,000 people dead. India accuses Pakistan of supporting terrorists, including those who have carried out attacks inside India-proper.

Pakistan has long denied India’s charges, saying it lends only moral support to Kashmiris struggling for self-determination.

Because of the Kashmir dispute, India views separatism elsewhere warily.

When Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia earlier this year, the United States and Britain were quick to recognize it. More than 40 other countries also have done so, but India is not among them. New Delhi is similarly not expected to support the Georgian breakaway republics.

Even so, the Caucasus dispute has given a boost to the Kashmiri separatist cause.

“Freedom of these countries serves as an eye opener to those who rule out the possibility of an independent Kashmir,” said Malik.

Septuagenarian hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani termed the development “another instance” of new nations coming into being “notwithstanding subjugation and suppression.”

“Independence of these new states within Europe has reinforced the resolve of the people of Kashmir to achieve their right to self- determination,” said Geelani, who heads the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat party.

Geelani said independence for East Timor, Kosovo and the Caucasus regions showed that “resistance based on facts and honesty are successful.”

“The day is not far when Kashmir will be liberated.”

Sajad Lone, a moderate separatist politician whose father, a top separatist leader, was shot dead by militants in 2002, said independence movements in South Ossetia and Abkhazia proved that small countries could exist alongside giant ones.

While some argued that an independent Kashmir could not survive, this was a myth, he said in an interview.

Developments in Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia “have buoyed the independence sentiments across the [Kashmir] valley,” he said.

But Nizam-ud-din Bhat, general secretary of Kashmir’s pro-India People’s Democratic Party, said Kashmir and the Caucasus could not be compared, as their histories and the origins of the conflicts were different.

At the same time, he conceded that India and Pakistan had failed to act and resolve the issue.

“The Kashmir dispute has been allowed to linger for several decades, and that culminated into the massive separatist rallies of late in the valley,” he said.

Omar Abdullah, who heads the National Conference, one of the region’s strongest pro-Indian political parties, in a television interview this week reiterated his party’s rejection of either independence or a merger with Pakistan as possible solutions for the conflict.

Amid some of the worst violence in Kashmir in years between Indian security forces and Kashmiris, some pro-independence leaders in Srinagar have been urging the United Nations and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to intervene.

India has rebuffed the organizations’ attempts to do so, however. After the OIC issued a statement expressing concern about the violence, New Delhi told the group, which comprises 56 Islamic countries, to keep out of the dispute, saying it had no legal standing to interfere.

The protests, triggered by the allotment of land for the building of a Hindu shrine, have left more than 45 protesters dead about 1,050 injured over the past two months.