October 1, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 18, 1428

WASHINGTON, Sept 30: Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) have raised hopes but have not materialised into any relief for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, according to President of Azad Kashmir Raja Zulqarnain.

“A just and fair settlement for the people of Kashmir is yet to be seen,” said Mr Zulqarnain while addressing a gathering in Washington organised by the Kashmiri American Council. Assessing the impact of the peace process in South Asia on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the AJK president emphasised that the main party to the conflict were the people of Jammu and Kashmir and any solution that did not address their grievances would fail.

“Pakistan has been very accommodative and flexible but I see no flexibility in India’s attitude,” he complained. “Unless India reciprocates, I do not see the peace process going anywhere.” The AJK president reiterated that the Kashmir movement was neither secessionist nor for annexation to any state. “It is not a territorial dispute. It is simply a question of fundamental human rights of 14 million people of Kashmir whose rights have been guaranteed by the United Nations Security Council,” he said.

He said the CBMs like the bus service and freedom of movement across the LoC were a welcome development but did not address the real issue.

Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, director of the Kashmir American Council, said that according to the latest survey conducted jointly by CNN, NDTV, Hindustan Times and The Dawn, 87 per cent people of Kashmir wanted freedom, which showed that the people ruled out the LoC becoming an international border. He warned that the Line of Control was the line of conflict and any notion that it could become an international border was a fallacy.

Dr Fai said that no confidence building measure was an end by itself. Such measures had to be accompanied by tangible efforts to be taken by the government of India to resolve the dispute. That might include steps like gradual demilitarisation and release of political prisoners.

He said that although the Indian troops committed human rights violations even in major cities, the worst atrocities were committed in the far-flung rural areas. Such atrocities unfortunately went unnoticed by the media.