KDC expresses solidarity with Kashmiris in their struggle for right to self-determination

Washington DC, January 03 (KMS): The Kashmir Diaspora Coalition (KDC) and its international affiliate organizations – World Kashmir Awareness Forum, Washington DC; Kashmir House Istanbul; Kashmir Civitas, Canada; World Kashmir Freedom Movement, London; Tehreek-Kashmir, UK and EU and Kashmir Campaign Global, London – have expressed complete solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir who are observing January 5, 2023 as Right to Self-Determination Day across the world.

The KDC in a statement issued from Washington said, on January 5, 1949, the UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) passed its resolution giving the Kashmiri people right to self-determination. It said, under this resolution the people of Jammu and Kashmir were authorized to exercise this right in a free and unfettered plebiscite to be held under the UN supervision. Unfortunately, it added, the Indian state didn’t cooperate with the UNCIP in implementing its explicit mission and its underlying UNSC resolution 47 of April 21, 1948, mandating such plebiscite in Kashmir.

The KDC statement said, non-compliance of India with the implementation of UN mandated right to self-determination in Jammu and Kashmir and UN’s failure to implement its decision over seven decades has led to enormous ongoing suffering on the people of Jammu and Kashmir. “It includes three major wars between India and Pakistan, numerous massacres of Muslims and an ongoing genocide by Indian military, paramilitary and civilian militias. Indian regimes have incrementally hollowed out any internal autonomy granted to Kashmiris. Since August 5, with the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A, the extremist supremacist regime of Narendra Modi has converted Kashmir from an illegal occupation to a fragmented lawless ‘Union Territory’ with no due process and no system of justice for the indigenous Muslim population,” it said.

The KDC said, Jammu and Kashmir is now undergoing a rapid transition from illegal occupation into an Indian settler-colonialist and apartheid project. It deplored that India is following the Israeli model with forced demographic change – millions of illegal Hindu importees granted Kashmiri domicile, right to vote, settlement in expropriated and stolen Kashmiri land and jobs. “Local Muslims dwellings are demolished to make space for Hindu Indians. Plans are being made to hold farcical elections to disenfranchise Muslims and win elections. Most Muslim political leaders, intellectuals, human rights defenders, and religious figures are imprisoned, tortured, or killed in custody or fake encounters,” it said.

The statement said, Kashmiris will never give in or give up their Right to Self-Determination despite the suffering and neglect on the part of the UN and the human rights bodies. “We appeal to the UN Secretary General, the UNSC, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, OIC and international NGOs to support the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir to achieve their UNSC-guaranteed Right to Self- Determination,” it added.