From Abid Usman
LAHORE: The term ‘Genocide’ was first coined during 1943 by a Jewish-Polish lawyer Dr. Raphael Lemkin who combined the Greek word “Genos” (race, group or tribe) with the Latin word “Cide” (to kill).Dr Lemkin witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust, in which all of his family members were killed except his brother.
Since then he launched a campaign globally to have genocide acknowledged as a crime under international law, and finally the United Nations (UN) Convention on Genocide adopted his idea in December 1948, which came into effect in January 1951.
Article two of the convention on genocide defines that any act committed with the intent to destroy a national, racial, ethnic or religious group as a part or whole would be treated or adopted as ‘genocide’.
But unfortunately it was shameful that trade, benefit gains and greed have desensitized world powers to such an extent that a huge loss of lives and genocide of Kashmiris destruction of entire generations carries no importance and meaning to them.
According to Kashmir Media Service (KMS) report, nearly 500,000 Kashmiris have been martyred, blinded (through pellet guns firing), tortured, maimed or forcibly disappeared by Indian military forces over the past 73 years.
Another data report of the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service (KMS) reveals that the Indian military troops in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K), had martyred 23 Kashmiris including a woman during the month of October in their continued state terrorism acts.
Indian paramilitary and police personnel had arrested at least 94 Kashmiri youth and destroyed seven houses in residential areas, it says adding that while five women were humiliated and 363 cordon and search operations were conducted in various areas of the valley during the month of October.
APHC leader Abdul Hameed Lone told APP that Jammu Kashmir Self-determination Movement international has raised its concern on international fronts over the mass graves and enforced disappearances of Kashmiris in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K). The criminal negligence and inaction of the International powers and muted response from world human rights’ bodies is alarming and dangerous regarding the genocide of Kashmiris, he informed.
The mass killing is setting a horrible and nasty precedent for other powers to eliminate entire populations and get away with awards and medals (recent awards to Modi), it makes the UN and other similar bodies like Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) irrelevant in the eyes of the oppressed Kashmiris, he revealed while replying to a query.
The two leading human rights organizations of the IIOJK, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) had issued a report consisting of 560-pages, highlighting the detail of techniques of torture on women, boys, girls, children and the minors.
The report revealed that the atrocities’ techniques were being used on the Kashmiri youth including, sexual torture, sleep deprivation, rape and sodomy, and solitary confinement to suppress the independence movement in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K). “During the torture, the Kashmiri youth including women detainees are beaten with wooden sticks, stripped naked and then their bodies are burnt with heaters, cigarette butts and iron rods to death,” the report reveals.
It may be mentioned here that the concerns of Human Rights (HR) bodies had strongly been articulated by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Commission of Jurists, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, VCIVICUS, International Service for Human Rights and World Organisation Against Torture, International Federation for Human Rights Leagues in a joint statement in Geneva recently. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch has strongly condemned the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in IIOJ&K which allows any security personnel or officer to open indiscriminate fire upon any group of people or a single person suspected of having weapons or even to arrest anyone without producing a warrant and conducting home raids.
Human Rights commission of Pakistan Chairperson Dr. Mehdi Hasan told APP that the UN, European Union (EU) and OIC should raise pressure on India to immediately stop custodial killings and ethnic cleansing of Kashmiris because the IIOJ&K conflict has the potential to spiral out of control of both countries and turn into a full-fledged Pakistan-India war.
