Home / News / Urgent Appeals / UPDATE (KASHMIR): Arrest of members of student organisation and maltreatment of academic by police
 

UPDATE (KASHMIR): Arrest of members of student organisation and maltreatment of academic by police

October 19, 2002

UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

20 October 2002
-----------------------------------------------------------
UP-59-2002 (RE: UA-47-2002: Pakistani police assault peaceful demonstrators in Kashmir)

UPDATE (KASHMIR): Arrest of members of student organisation and maltreatment of academic by police; freedom of speech and assembly met with violence in Pakistani-administered Kashmir
-----------------------------------------------------------

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) sent an urgent appeal on Oct. 15, 2002, regarding the brutal action of the police in Mirpur in Pakistani-administrated Kashmir on Sept. 30, 2002. The detainees of Sept. 30 are still behind bars. The following report is an update regarding another brutal action of the police in Muzaffarabad, the capital city of Pakistani-administrated Kashmir, against a peaceful demonstration held by the Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF) on Oct. 15.


CASE DETAILS

During the incident of Sept. 30, 2002, a peaceful procession of the Anti-Mangla Dam Extension Committee in Mirpur was attacked, assaulted with tear gas, baton-charged and 13 political activists were arrested. In response, the Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF), a secular, democratic and progressive organisation of Kashmiri students, announced a protest march for Oct. 15 in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administrated Kashmir, to demand the release of the detainees of Sept. 30 and to protest against the extension of the Mangla Dam that will displace 90,000 to 100,000 people in Kashmir. The protestors, however, were attacked by the police, assaulted with tear gas and baton-charged as well. As a result of this brutal action by the police, several demonstrators were injured. The police also arrested at least 15 peaceful demonstrators and took them to the city police station where no one has been allowed to visit them. Moreover, the detainees who were injured, including Mr. Shujaat Ali Kazmi, the president of JKNSF, have been denied medical treatment as well.

Meanwhile, at 6:00 a.m. on Oct. 16, a group of 50 policemen raided the house of Prof. Khaleeque, a prominent educator and intellectual of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, without arrest and search warrants and insulted him and maltreated his family members and arrested his son, Mr. Shujaat Tatari, a politically active member of JKNSF.

There have been large-scale protests in all of the towns of Pakistani-administered Kashmir since the Pakistani government decided to extend the Mangla Dam.

AHRC stresses that the use of such violence must come to an end immediately. The people of Kashmir have a legitimate right to protest peacefully. Denying the people of this right is a violation of their basic human rights and contravenes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other human rights covenants.


SUGGESTED ACTION

Please take action now by sending letters of protest to Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, and Mr. Khalid Ranjha, the federal minister of law, demanding the release of all detainees and the convening of an inquiry of the events taking place in Pakistani-administrated Kashmir since the Pakistani government announced the extension of the Mangla Dam in Kashmir that will displace about 100,000 people.


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear

Re: Violence and tension in Pakistani-administered Kashmir due to the extension of the Mangla Dam

I am writing to express my deep concern about the recent escalating violence and arrests in Pakistani-administered Kashmir because of the extension of the Mangla Dam that will displace thousands of people who are poor. It is also illegal as the State of Jammu Kashmir is a disputed territory whose future will be determined through a plebiscite according to U.N. Security Council resolutions.

We call upon you to take all necessary measures to step back from the proposed extension of the Mangla Dam and to release all of the detainees, who were arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order law, or MPO, on Sept. 30 and Oct. 15, 2002, in Mirpur and Muzaffarabad respectively.

We also call upon you to bring an end to the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators, to release all of the detainees and to take effective and genuine disciplinary action against the police officers who gave the orders for these attacks on civilians and the police officers who took part in these violent actions. Moreover, we request that an apology be made to the victims of these violent actions and that reassurances be given to the people of Pakistani-administered Kashmir that these actions will not be repeated. Lastly, we ask that the government bear the medical costs incurred by the victims due to the beatings they have received from the police.

I trust that you will take prompt action to resolve the present tense and violent situation in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Thank you for your kind attention to this important issue.

Sincerely yours,


SEND LETTERS TO;

General Pervez Musharraf
President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Prime Minister House
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 051 920-1893/1835 or 4632
E-mail: CE@pak.gov.pk
Salutation: Dear Gen. Musharraf

Mr. Khalid Ranjha
Federal Minister
Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights
S-Block, Pak Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
E-mail: molaw1@comsats.net.pk,
Fax: +92-51-9202628

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Update
Document ID :
UP-59-2002
Countries :
Issues :
Document Actions
Share |
Subscribe to our Mailing List
Follow AHRC
Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.