Kashmir forum set up by US lawmakers: Hearing saved from being one-sided
By Our Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, June 7: A Congressional committee hearing on the crisis in South Asia on Thursday that was expected to be narrowly focussed on the issue of cross-border incursions heard strong statements urging the US government to pay attention to understanding and resolving the issue of Kashmir.
The hearing was held by the House of Representatives sub-committee on the Middle East and South Asia, headed by Representative Benjamin Gilman, who represents a New York suburban constituency that has a large number of American Indian constituents. The sub-committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep Gary Ackerman, has also been known for his generally pro-India views.
Both blamed Pakistan for cross-border incursions and Rep Ackerman asked for infiltration to stop permanently and irrevocably. But other members of the sub-committee, notably Reps Dan Burton, Joseph Pitts and Dana Rorabacher, argued that the real problem was Kashmir and the denial of the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.
Rep Pitts also announced the formation of a Kashmir forum in the House of Representatives that would seek to educate both members of the House and administration officials about the need to address the wishes of the people of Kashmir. Besides Pitts, the forum will comprise Rep David Bonior and Rep Kevin Brady.
The setting up of the forum was immediately welcomed by Pakistani diplomats, who had lobbied behind the scenes to prevent the hearing from turning into a one-sided indictment of Pakistan.
Most of those who took part in the sub-committee’s proceedings, including the three experts called to testify, condemned terrorism and cross-border infiltration. But Burton stressed that it should also be recognized that the Kashmiri uprising had begun in the 1980s as a reaction to the repression of Indian security forces and gross violations of human rights.
One of the witnesses, Anton Levin of the Carnegie Endowment, said an indigenous uprising of the Kashmiris had been exploited by outsiders, but it would be a dreadful mistake if every act of violence in Kashmir were blamed on Pakistan. “US policy should be balanced.”
The other witnesses were Michael Krepon, President of the Henry L. Stimson Centre, and Amit Pandya, senior fellow at the Institute for Global Democracy. Pandya said the US must continue its present policy of putting pressure on Pakistan to prevent militancy, but said the impact of militarism on the erosion of democracy and India’s culture of tolerance should also be kept in mind.
Rep Gilman criticized Pakistan’s rejection of the Indian proposal for joint military patrols, and said the US must leave Gen Musharraf with no choice other than to completely prevent terrorism in any form.
