Americans for Resolution of Kashmir

Chairman’s Message
March 3, 2009

Dear Friends: 

The U.S. has begun “trilateral talks” to engage Pakistan and Afghanistan in collaborative discussions of, among other things, cross-border security and terrorism. While there may be some level of success in securing the torturous border between these two countries to make it harder for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to operate, there will be no end to the impetus for violence unless and until the 62-year conflict over Kashmir – the longest standing territorial conflict in U.N. history – is justly resolved.

The U.S. will again attempt to to physically inhibit movement rather than addressing the underlying causes of violence. The outcome is utterly and tragically predictable.

Kashmir is situated between India, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The unresolved 62-year conflict over its right of self-determination has produced 2 wars, numerous prolonged and bloody military campaigns, and a near-nuclear exchange. For 17 years, Kashmir has been occupied by the largest concentration of ground forces on the planet since World War II. Horrific human rights violations, tacitly sanctioned by the Indian government, continue to occur on a daily basis, including rape, murder, “disappearances”, shelling of innocent civilians, schools, farms, and infirmaries, and other forms of repression that violate not only the law but every vestige of human dignity.

Trying to build fences and tighten border restrictions will not stop violence in Afghanistan or Pakistan any more than it prevented the terrible events in Mumbai or the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. Even as the U.S. State Department voices its strong support for elections proposed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, it ignores the terrible ground realities of next door Kashmir, where a “free and fair plebiscite” was promised over 60 years ago. Such selective inconsistencies in supporting freedom continue to serve as recruiting posters for terrorists who believe that change can only come through violence.

Kashmir is the longest standing territorial conflict in the U.N. Her people were promised a free and fair plebiscite in 1947, but these have never materialized. We cannot insist on elections in Pakistan and Afghanistan, ignore the brutal repression and disregard the long-ignored promise of a plebiscite in next-door Kashmir, and expect to achieve any level of success in defeating terrorism. Simply put, Kashmir must be a major component in any credible effort to bring peace and stability to this war-torn part of the world.

Hon. Robert J. Giuda