Kashmir's Forgotten Exodus

Ethnic Cleansing Of Kashmir's Pandits 

(Kashmir Pandits celebrate Kheer Bhawani)

Please note before reading this article that Alder's Ledge is a blog that attempts to dissect the complicated elements of any given conflict. We recognize that issues such as Kashmir are complex and have many different perspectives and are flooded by emotion and opinion. By looking at the issue through several perspectives while taking in mind the information from our contributors, we try to show the given elements of a conflict or genocide in doses. This allows the reader to digest these elements piece by piece rather than having to look at the issue in it's entirety. With that in mind please take time to read other articles here on this issue to get a better view of the subject. Take time to let the information settle in before allowing emotion to affect your opinions of this article or others one the subject.

As always, we attempt to be as fair as possible to all sides (even the alleged perpetrators) until the issue is completely analyzed. This article is not meant to be a complete analysis of the conflict/genocide. It is rather a single entry into our campaign to explore the crisis in it's entirety.

The conflict that the British initiated upon leaving India was one that the world would not see again nor could barely admit once it began. Sikhs were the initial victims of the bloodletting that occurred upon both sides of the Pakistani-Indian border. They were massacred as the world ignored the plight of a people even England had failed to recognize as vulnerable. Yet this warning sign of what was about to become of Kashmir was totally ignored. It was as if the blood of the Sikhs was just worth a tad bit less than that of the Hindus and Muslims that would soon poor out upon Kashmir's soil. Nobody cared whatsoever.

Every battle, every war, has it's first shots. Before the bullets are loaded, before the soldiers take to the field, there are warning signs. The sabers rattle and the leaders begin to thump their chests. But even before that there is a warning sign the world often ignores. The flight of the weak... the migration of the vulnerable. Those who can see the writing on the wall and afford to run do so as silent messengers to a deaf world. Their footsteps prepare the way for the boots of tyrants. And their tears quench the thirsts of savages.

In Kashmir the paths leading into the valley and out were kept hot by the heels of fleeing civilians. People from both sides of the conflict wanted to make it to their side of the battle line before all hell broke loose. Their mad dash was ignored by the world as India and Pakistan prepared for a war that would never come. Instead, those who fled, those who were trapped would be ground between two bloody states.

When Kashmir became a no-man's land of sorts the people that lived there were left at the mercy of either India or Pakistan. If they happened to be Hindu in Jammu they were considered safe. If they happened to be Muslim and on Pakistan's portion of the land they were considered safe. But those in the valley... those were the victims of both sides. These were the pawns used in Pakistan and India's cold war.

The Pandits

The Pandits (or Brahmins) have been documented in Kashmir as far back as the Lohara Dynasty (established in 1003AD). Their roots in Kashmir are impossible to dispute yet have been hard to maintain over the past several decades. With the introduction of Islam into Kashmir in the 8th century the Pandits have often found themselves attempting to live in peace with the passing kingdoms. And for centuries they had managed to successfully maneuver their way through the shifting religious and political landscape of Kashmir's valley.

Yet modern politics and the desire to brutally open old wounds (and create new ones) has left the Pandit community struggling to cling to the land they once called home. With the violence in Kashmir has come the all to easy use of Pandits as scapegoats for militants and separatists. The fact that Kashmiri Pandits now only number around 2,700 to 3,400 makes their small community even more vulnerable. 

In 1947 the Pandits were estimated to comprise around 14-15% of the total population of Kashmir. By 1981 the Pandits had been reduced to around 5% of the overall population. This was in part due to the land reforms that immediately followed British withdraw from India and the mass migrations that came with them. It was also however contributed to by Pakistani backed harassment of Pandits who attempted to stay behind when the "Line Of Control" was established (officially creating a line of demarcation between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir. Then in the 1980's on through the 90s the continued decline of the community was then helped along by massacres of Pandits committed by groups with military and political backing from Pakistan. 

Of the 600-700 thousand Pandits prior to the waves of migration some now refer to as "the exodus" there is only a remnant left. 

While Pakistan can shoulder some of the blame for helping to instigate the anti-Hindu violence the rest of the blame rest solely upon India's own government. Kashmir, under Indian rule, has always been the Kashmiri Pandits' home. When the 1980's and 90's violence began the Indian government had an obligation to protect the vulnerable Pandit community. It is obvious from the sheer number of troops that India has in the region that this could had easily been achieved. Yet for whatever reason India comes up with from day to day, the Pandit community was allowed to be repeatedly attacked and forced out of their homeland. 

In all reality India did nothing to stop the burning and looting of Pandit peoples' properties, the rapes of Pandit women, and the outright killing of those who attempted to stay or were caught fleeing. Most of India's reactions to the flight of Hindus from the Kashmir valley can be summed up as reactionary while failing to stop the violence at all. Most of the time the response the Indian military gave was more of an opportunistic spree of violence and rape committed against Muslims who had nothing to do with the attacks on Pandit civilians. 

Then there are the accounts that Pandit refugees were treated just as poorly by the Indian government once they reached Jammu as they had been in Kashmir by Muslim insurgents. In some cases the Indian government's military was known to use methods described as "survival sex" in which refugee women were expected to accept rape in exchange for food and water. Yet the Indian regime in Delhi, as always, refused and still refuses to address these abuses against Pandits in Kashmir and Jammu. 

Return Or Separation?

There is an overwhelming urge on the part of the Pandit community in exile to return. Many have been wary of state sponsored "employment packages" designed to help ease the rehabilitation and resettlement of Pandits returning to the valley. Others have expressed some interests in "carving out" a section of Kashmir valley for their resettlement. Yet most simply desire to return without interference of the government outside the simply offering of protection once back in their homeland.

The myth of a Pandit movement to seek a separate state for the Kashmiri Pandits is one that floats around quite often. While there are some who want to be assured a home in Kashmir, the majority want to return to the way life was prior to the exodus. These Pandits have no illusion of a world where Hindus and Muslims dance around singing love songs together but rather a return to the tolerance and communities that once existed before.

For Kashmir to return to this state of peace the two communities have a long way to go. Pandits and Muslims both have to work at deconstructing the barriers the two communities have built up around themselves. The continued desire to blame one side or the other must be worked past. This would most likely be achieved through following the example of Rwanda and how it has recovered from it's own genocide. Yet more likely will be achieved by focusing on the work of groups like Pandit Hindu Welfare Society who are helping to open up dialogue between Pandits and Muslims.

Then comes the reality of the divisions created amongst the communities of those Pandits that stayed behind and those who fled. The two groups do not see eye to eye when recollecting the history of the exodus itself. The Pandits that left typically record the death toll of the massacres considerably higher than those who stayed behind. The level of violence depicted by those who fled is also drastically more dramatically recounted than that depicted by the Pandit's that fled. These differences are hard to get over as Pandits that stayed are reunited with members who left.

These two groups are even more divided when the reality of the emotional and physical toll of the exodus itself is factored in. Members who fled have an entirely different experience than those who stayed behind. Resentment and a lack of empathy can often make either side feel marginalized as one group or the other petitions for recognition of their given stories.

No Easy Answers

In the end the path forward for the Pandits of Kashmir is difficult at best. Neither India or Pakistan has any real political gain or interest in allowing Pandits to return to their homeland. India has shown no real intent to protect Pandits that have decided to return to their homeland. And Pakistan shows little interest in preventing hate filled propaganda from seeping over into the valley.

For the Pandit community in Kashmir and Jammu the long stalemate between India and Pakistan remains a threat in their continued plight. Those who stayed still struggle to find some sense of normalcy in a life where they cling to mere existence. Those who want to return have to live with the uncertainty of what awaits them when they finally do get to go home.

Source Documents
*Note: not all sources are listed.


Aljazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/kashmirtheforgottenconflict/2011/07/201176134818984961.html

IBN Live
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kishtwar-riots-an-isi-bid-at-ethnic-cleansing-defence-expert/422192-3.html

The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/pandits-flock-to-kashmir-valley-to-celebrate-kheer-bhawani/article3469119.ece

Indian Express
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/those-in-power-did-nothing-to-prevent-exodus-say-kashmiri-pandits/1172869/

Press Trust Of India
http://www.ptinews.com/news/3997223_Panun-Kashmir-demands-UT-in-Kashmir-for-resettlement.html

Goodbye

Farewell To "The Perfect Man"
(Human Extinction series)

(Onge Women With Traditional Dress and Face Paint)

At the turn of the century the British were spreading like a plague upon the face of the earth. They brought development at the cost of the native peoples they colonized. Like the barbarians that overran Rome, the British came in waves as they fanned out to the four corners of the planet. This strategy of taking anything that didn't have a European flag planted in it (and at times even then) allowed the Brits to slaughter the indigenous tribes just like the Spaniards in South America. Taking anything they wanted while exploiting the people they claimed to be making civilized.

What had been done to the Americas for two centuries prior was now being done to India and Southeast Asia. The Europeans who had come before them were somehow made to look like saints as the British killed anything that would not fall in line. And when the locals outnumbered the invaders, Britain simply exploited local feuds to pit neighbor against neighbor... after all, it worked in America.

Upon first contact with the British the Onge, "En-iregale" in their own tongue (meaning perfect man), had numbered around 670 people. They were united and had a strong culture built upon centuries of living amongst the Andamanese islands. They were in tune with the cycles of the sea so much so that all 96 Onge members survived the 2004 tsunami by retreating to the highlands. They had a sustainable way of life that included hunting and fishing along with gathering of plants and edible roots.

Today the Onge people have just under 100 surviving members. They are confined to a tiny portion of their native lands in Indian built houses that are at best poorly built and rarely maintained. Disease and social ailments introduced by the British and Indians have left the Onge struggling to survive. Their hunting grounds are often kept off limits to them while poachers encroach upon their tiny scrap of land. The semi-nomadic practices they had once enjoyed as a society are now almost all but gone.

Some of the most humiliating results of their forced settlement (during the 1970's) has been the denial of their rights to hunt upon their own lands by the Indian government. Culturally it has always been traditional that an Onge man has not been allowed to marry until he has killed a wild boar. Now, with the persistent problem of poachers, the Onge men face humiliation or the need to break Indian imposed laws to culturally be accepted as a man.

For the women the settlement has meant being unable to provide for their children in the same ways their ancestors had. This has led to several issues including malnutrition amongst the Onge children. When the men are unable to hunt pigs or sea turtles the women are needed to gather food. But this has been increasingly difficult since large parts of the island are off limits to the Onge due to the Indian governments neglect of them.

Food has always been important to people. What we eat not only provides us nourishment but provides a mental link for us to remember people and places we grew up with. In the West we often call this "soul food". For the Onge people this comfort has been deprived to them by the British initially and currently the Indian government. The foods that their ancestors had taught them to survive off, to love, are now difficult for the Onge to obtain. Classic comfort foods for them are quickly becoming a memory.

All of these elements contribute strongly to the possibility of extinction for the Onge people rather plausible. Though the birth rate is often cited as improving amongst the Onge people the fact is that it is miserably low (drastically when compared to the rest of India). Then when coupled with an extremely unacceptably high infant mortality rate, the Onge people's hopes for survival are placed in doubt. This is only further exacerbated by the gender ratio is horrifically imbalanced (in 2006 there were 12 boys under 5 years old verses only six girls).

So now that over 100 years has passed since the Onge first met the rest of the world we are facing a point where we might just have to say farewell to "the perfect man". It is a sad reality that the world has allowed a people, of which we know so little about, to vanish from the face of the planet without a single tear, a word of remorse, or a goodbye.

In 2012 the world's citizens donated just over 90 million to World Wildlife Fund to help save animals from extinction. From their own pockets, these caring individuals sacrificed a small portion of their money to a cause that they cared deeply about (or at least enough to donate towards). Some may have been donating to the cause of saving polar bears, or pandas, or even the black rhinoceros. Others may have simply donated to help save animals in general. But what would they have donated had they been donating to UNICEF or other organization helping to save the Onge people from extinction?

Are human lives not worth more than that of a bear or elephant?

There are around 25,000 Asian Elephants alive in the world today.
There are around 4,850 Black Rhinoceroses alive in the world today
There are around 2,500 Bengal Tigers alive in the world today.
There are around 1,600 Giant Pandas alive in the world today.

Yet there are less than 100 Onge people still clinging to existence.

It shouldn't be difficult for people to realize that something in this comparison doesn't add up. We aren't comparing these people to animals in any way other than how the outside world views them. They were exploited for a century and kept out of sight when the world found it indecent to abuse them any further. All the while the Indian government has taken from them everything it has wanted while pushing them further towards oblivion with each passing year.

The main reason for this comparison is that of our own guilt in allowing the Onge people to perish. While we worry about tigers (allotted 15,818 sq miles of reserves in India) the Onge people are confined to 1/3 of their native lands. While we worry about the extinction of elephants in Asia the Onge people tiptoe toward their own extinction. And all the while we ignore the plight of our fellow man.



During January of 2012 we watched as the last Bo tribal member died. His final gift to the world was a sad and lonely song. In his words he spoke of watch the last great tree fall with a deafening crashing sound. One can only imagine that he was that tree and his voice was that final scream to a world too deaf to hear his peoples' pleas.

What will we do when the last Onge person passes away before our eyes?

Will we wait to hear yet another sad song?

Or will we scream before that day comes?

Want to learn more about this issue or contact the author?

Twitter: @alders_ledge

FaceBook: Alder's Ledge

Source Documents
*note not all sources listed

Cultural Survival
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/voices/mariana-budjeryn/survivors-tsunami

Survival International
http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/jarawa

UNESCO
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001876/187690e.pdf

UNICEF
http://www.unicef.org/rosa/media_2588.htm

Indigenous Policy Journal
http://indigenouspolicy.org/index.php/ipj/article/view/43/102

World Wildlife Fund
http://worldwildlife.org/about/financials

The Elephant's Crushing Weight

India's Attempts To Subdue Kashmir

Indian police officers arrest a Kashmiri boy protesting during curfew in Srinagar, India, Saturday, July 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/20/3511480/the-daily-edit-072113.html#storylink=cpy

It is the long held tradition in human history that given members of society have painted conflicts in the light of an oppressor (aggressor) and the underdog. Yet in most fights that have taken place throughout history there has rarely been a clear cut aggressor and a pure victim. When the facts are laid out there are often reasons for why and how a conflict has played out. The side that has had the upper hand is rarely as evil as the sympathetic onlooker might paint them. And likewise, the apparently victimized side is rarely innocent in the overall scheme of the conflict.

This generalization of war can be applied to most conflicts between organized states. A certain level of antagonism takes place as the two sides size one another up like grade school boys. The larger one generally attempts to flaunt it's muscles like a bull pacing the fence. While the smaller challenger more often than not just tries to save face as it puffs up it's chest and prepares to attempt to outlast it's foe. It is this simplistic approach to generalizing war between states that can be given to outdated battles and wars of days now past. It can't however be applied to modern crises where a third party finds themselves trapped between old world style conflicts.

In Kashmir the third party happens to be the people who lived upon the land prior to the development of the two rivaling states. They are an innocent bystander in a conflict that places two egotistical foes against one another. Leaving the Kashmiri people trapped between two sides that so selfishly utilize the land and it's people as pawns in a power struggle from which no one will ever benefit.

In a simplified version of war the Kashmiri people just simply wouldn't exist. Either they would be Pakistani or Indian. And that bloody, densely militarized, zone of "control" would be void of life. That would be the portrayal of war with which the Western world is familiar. A landscape of no-man's lands where only the dogs of war dare stray.

But Kashmir isn't a land of burnt foliage and bomb craters. It is a land of rich and deep heritage that fills the Kashmiri people to the brim. It is a land where dusty roads and green trees hide in the shadows of looming mountains. It is a land of picturesque waters dotted with houseboats and old men wasting the days away at the water's edge. And yet for all it's beauty, Kashmir is also a land where Islam and Hinduism have been forced to violently butt their heads like rams.

This struggle is one in which the two sides, India and Pakistan, are forced to hold their positions while keeping the Kashmiri people in check. To do so India has relied upon some of the most heinous of atrocities and tactics to keep the will of a broken nation beneath it's heel.

Holding The Line

Violently

Unending Ambush

From the moment the British left the Kashmir valley has been plagued by death and destruction. This bitter legacy of bloody hands on both sides has left the valley divided and distributed amongst three glutenous countries. The hellish fighting that led up to this modern "cease fire" culminated in countless stalemates. In the end the main scar that has remained upon the land itself is the "Line of Control" (LOC), or "Asia's Berlin Wall". 

Much like Korea's divide, Kashmir's scar is pot-marked with guns, soldiers, tanks, planes, and anything that can kill. Most horrifically however are the weapons that don't simply walk away if the war was ended tomorrow. One silent killer, the ever present stalker, will live well past the end of Kashmir's divide. The landmine. 

Placed by the two brutal armies of India and Pakistan, the landmine is a weapon that is impossible to keep track of and contain. In Kashmir these weapons of war have, as they always do, killed an maimed countless civilians as the two armies place the blame on the opposite side. And yet regardless of who places them, these weapons continue to claim more lives even when relative peace is established along the LOC.

Landmines are a weapon that have long been utilized due to their ability to hinder the advancement or movement of an enemy combatant. Yet with every weapon there are trade offs that the military often callously labels as "collateral damage". For the landmine the trade off is the inability of the device to determine who exactly it is about to kill once the bomb becomes active. It has no ability to determine if the victim is a fully armed combatant or just a child running past. Either way, the damage is unable of being stopped once the weapon has been triggered. And it is for this reason that the landmine is often deployed... there is no escape. 

For the civilian population along the LOC in Kashmir the threat of landmines lingers well after the threat of war has passed. In 2002 the area was flooded with landmines as India and Pakistan began to prepare for open conflict over the disputed region. India is believed to have placed just over 200 thousand landmines in the area along the LOC in Jammu region alone as a response to the Pakistani troop surge along there. One can only guess as to how many more were placed in Kashmir as the Indian Army prepared for invasion along the LOC fences in the Kashmir region. 

Today the Indian Army claims to have cleared at least 80% of the landmines it placed in 2002 when it prepared for a war that fizzled out. However in 2007 a rash of landmine explosions plagued the Jammu region as wildfires, cattle, and civilians all triggered the deadly sentinels. This outbreak of death and destruction highlighted the fact that (then) 16,000 acres of mine-affected land in Jammu and 173,000 acres in Kashmir were still extremely lethal killing fields. 

India currently, as it has for the past decade, resisted identifying ares afflicted with mines and disclosing just how many mines it has laid along the LOC. Instead of warning civilians in the region, India allows civilians to live in afflicted areas so as to conceal the locations from Pakistani intelligence. This means that India permits innocent civilians to be maimed and killed by it's mines so as to hide the locations from an enemy it has yet to openly fight. 

In 1997 the world was given the Mine Ban Treaty. 158 countries became signatories to an international agreement that would officially ban the use and maintaining of landmines and mine fields. India and Pakistan have refused to sign the treaty (along with Russia and China). Despite 40% of the signatories showing that you can sign the treaty and simply create laws of your own to permit domestic use of mines, India refuses to sign the treaty.

Instead India continues to place hundreds of thousands of it's four to five million mines along the LOC dividing line. Instead of taking a step toward peace, India continues to place these gatekeepers to hell along the LOC. With no regard to the safety of the Kashmiri civilians, India actively places and maintains it's landmines in Kashmir. 

Striking At The Soul Of Kashmir

February, 1991 a detachment of Indian soldiers in Kunan Poshpura, Kashmir gang-rape at least 53 Kashmiri women. Accounts of this incident are varied in numbers. Witnesses to the crime have at times disappeared. And those who dare speak out are routinely threatened or made to be quite by the Indian military. 

Officially, according to the Indian government, the mass gang-rape in Kunan Poshpura did not happen. Despite countless credible accounts and documented evidence of the crime, India's government refuses to investigate or hold the soldiers accountable. Like so many other such cases the Indian government has taken a stance of silence in the face of absolute barbarism. 

You only have to step far enough back to realize that rape cases like this one are not spontaneous acts of sexual deviancy perpetrated by hormone driven savages. To rape 53 (possibly more) women a group of men must have the apparent authority over their victims and/or the threat of immediate death to subdue their victims. The crime must be organized and orchestrated in such a manner as to prevent the act from being interrupted or discovered at the time it is being perpetrated. The victims must be restrained or confined in such a manner as to keep the assailants from sustaining bodily harm while inflicting it upon the victims. And the officials in charge must be informed of the crime so as not to end it unintentionally.

These are obviously sanctioned crimes in the fact that they are rarely if ever punished by the government or military itself. The fact that they are targeted at communities that have shown resistance to the weight of India's government upon the backs of the Kashmiri people. Where signs of resistance emerge the use of rape as a weapon has often followed in India's occupied areas of Kashmir. Thus it is undeniable that this crime is not only directed and encouraged but an intrinsic part of the Indian strategy to demoralize the Kashmiri people. 

In war the use of rape is usually defined as a method of conducting psychological warfare. Many voices on the use of rape as a weapon often state that its use is meant to inflict pain on the targeted society by humiliating and shaming the community at large. It is also classified by the United Nations, in accordance to the relationship to it and the conflict at large, as either an act of war, crime against humanity, war crime, or a constitutive act with regards to genocide. Thus meaning that it's intent is in direct relation with the intended outcome of the crime genocide given the nature of the Indian occupation of Kashmir itself.

“It has probably become more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in armed conflict.”

~ Major-General Patrick Cammaert, former UN Peacekeeper Commander DRC

One of the most horrific aspects of the rapes being committed by India's troops is the tragic affects they have on the community at large. Punishing the men by forcing them to watch and punishing the women though it's application; rape destroys the community at as a whole. Even when the women are killed in mass after being gang-raped (sometimes dieing during the attacks) the mental wounds are permanently affixed to the victimized community. Children who have had to see their parents made helpless, having to see their sister and mothers raped, do not forget these grotesque crimes.

In Bosnia the scars that were left behind due to the extensive application of rape as a weapon have remained open for decades after the genocide there. Cambodia's rape victims were even more ignored as the genocide there came to a close and Vietnamese troops began to apply rape during their advances into Cambodia. The crime was even less mentioned or recognized as we go back to World War Two and see how Japan's victims were marginalized as the Japanese were removed from their occupied territories (especially Nanjing).

One can only attempt to imagine what nearly 60 years of rape in Kashmir will leave upon the fabric of Kashmiri society. Entire generations have grown up in a time and place where rape has been an ever lingering threat hanging over their heads. Women, girls, and even boys have been victimized in ways that the Delhi government has refused to recognize or even prosecute.

The Mouse Under A Box

Crimes committed against an entire community are crimes that cannot be forgiven by the individual. These are crimes that if left unaddressed will continually come to the surface, and often violently. The urge to fight back against an aggressor is a motivation that will persist even after the aggressor has ended their attacks. It is for this reason that India's persistent application of brutal means of oppression only serve to fill the lungs of Kashmiri youth with screams... bloody cries of resistance. 

It can be compared to a mouse trapped beneath the weight of a box. Unable to move on it's own the mouse will continue to gasp for air as the box pushes each breath from it's lungs. Slowly suffering from asphyxiation the mouse will fight for each next breath as it twists and turns to find an advantageous position from which to draw it's next breath. The fight wears at the muscles as oxygen slips away and the trapped mouse uses more strength to push back against the crushing weight upon it's back. Yet despite all this the fight continues on and on as the mouse flares it's nostrils and attempts to find each next breath. 

If the weight on a people becomes so oppressive that they risk losing the very things they rely upon to bond them to one another, such as culture and shared customs; the people will push back. Even if the fight they choose is nothing more than pelting their aggressors with rocks; the people will find a way to fill their lives with a purpose... a common struggle... and a reason to take that next breath. 

For Kashmir the oppressive heel of the Indian government cannot keep them from pushing back against their oppressor's weight. They are a resilient people, a proud people, and despite all the atrocious acts committed against them; they are a people still united.

Want to learn more or reply to the author? 

Contact us:

Twitter: @alders_ledge

FaceBook: Alder's Ledge

Source Documents:
*Not all sources listed

Greater Kashmir
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2013/Sep/16/day-2-kashmir-shuts-against-civilian-killings-27.asp
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2013/Sep/16/south-kashmir-townships-under-curfew-for-9th-day-28.asp

Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/13/323771/fresh-clashes-erupt-in-kashmir/
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/15/324125/kashmir-rape-victims-await-justice/

Kashmir Media Service
http://www.kmsnews.org/news/2013/09/15/kashmiris-being-brutalised-mirwaiz-petitions-envoys.html

Global Times
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/784243.shtml#.Uji-57ypYXw

Kashmir Times
http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=22791

The Dragon, Tiger, And Elephant

Land Of The Lost 

When my family first came to America they settled in the warmth of the Virginia mountains. In those calm mountains they made a better life for their future generations. The love for those beautiful mountains flows in my veins. It is a desire for their presence that never leaves my soul as I wander the world in search of a peace I will not find out from beneath their shadows. In the hills, among the trees and cool night air, my mind finds itself a sense of being at home.

The picture above reminded me of those Virginian mountains to which I'm so often drawn. In those old forest I see the warmth that first welcomed my ancestors to this land of the free. In those blue shadows I see the gentle peace that brought my family out of Europe's callousness. But I can't help but realize that despite the beauty of that picture there is something far different than freedom nestled in those mountains above.

The picture above is of the mountains in Azad Kashmir. Just to the east of those peaks lay the line of control... a demarcation between Indian and Pakistan. It is one of the world's most militarized zones. It is a place on the planet that two armies stand and stare at one another as a war that officially ended decades ago waits for the spark to reignite it. Millions of men wait to die on both sides of the wire. Millions of innocent souls wait to be caught up in the crossfire.

Kashmir is a land of lost beauty. Despite all the wonders it has to offer the world it is caught between three nations that make life impossible. Everything and everyone that remains between the three beasts does so with the constant reminder that death isn't far away. Every flower that blooms risk being savagely crushed beneath the heels of jackboots on their way to the next massacre. This is the irony of one of the world's most neglected lands... a paradise lost.

The Dragon

China is in Kashmir as it is in Tibet, an opportunistic savage. There is no better way to describe the persistent pain that China has created in the eastern portion of Kashmir. Through aggression and refusal to cede land it never really had claim to, China has injected itself into India and Pakistan's war. 

The area of Aksai Chin was forcibly annexed when in 1956-7 the Chinese military moved their forces into Ladakh to build a road capable of moving military equipment south from Xinjiang province. The excuse that the world has accepted is that China wanted to provide better communication between Xinjiang and Tibet. However this is hard to explain outside the realization that China occupies both Tibet and Xinjiang through military might and has no real claim to either. 

The desire to annex Aksai Chin led to a short but nasty little war in which India's line of control was shifted. This once again divided up the Kashmir and placed yet again more families on opposite sides of the fence. Pakistan took the opportunity to antagonize it's rival to the south by handing over even more land claimed by India at the end of the war. This once again added another layer to the conflict ridden area. 

As for China the move to invade the region was something of an effort to create a buffer zone between it's Muslim population in Xinjiang and the Muslims of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This show of unpunished aggression allowed China the ability to make it's presence felt in the Muslim world. It showed the Uyghur Muslims that the state could and would use force to keep Xinjiang... and every last inch of it. 

This use of force is still reflected upon today as China pumps Xinjiang and Tibet full of military and security personnel. The road that launched the conflict is still utilized to maintain the buffer zone between Islamic ethnic minorities in China and the rest of the Muslim world. Even with the Internet and television weakening that physical barrier, China still maintains it's presence in Aksai Chin. 

The Tiger

Pakistan is often accused of inflaming the Muslim population of Kashmir with propaganda and anti-Indian messages. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the Pakistani government was accused of providing Afghan Mujahadeen with passage into the Kashmir. This claim, mainly by India, was used to explain the influx of Kashmiri nationalism as the youth of the region became increasingly disenfranchised. Though there is a little truth to the allegations that Pakistan has provided some assistance to militant groups operating on the opposite side of the wire the reality of brutal Indian policies should be first blamed. Yet the claims still persist to this day. 

The desire to absorb the Kashmir in it's entirety and the refuse to allow the Kashmir to express it's right to self-determination has been Pakistan's main failure. Unlike China, Pakistan does not appear to want any such buffer zone left between their country and India. The desire to claim the land is further expressed through Pakistan's constant highlighting of the reality that the Kashmir is predominately Muslim. This shows Pakistan's desire to finish the bloody mess the British left behind when the Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus were left to race toward their respective homelands (in which the Sikhs were left empty handed).

This desire to force the Kashmir into Pakistan rule is not a new one. In 1947 the hellish fighting that ensued was a direct result of Pakistan's willingness to push it's will upon the Kashmiri people. The land had been left in a standstill as the rulers decided which country they wanted to join at the end of British rule. Pakistan sent in it's guerrillas to rush along the decision making process while India offered it's military to push back the Pashtuns. The war that followed was the exact reason that India now maintains a line of control and divides the Kashmir region with it's presence. 

Another result of the war is the Azad Kashmir district on the western edge of Kashmir. This strip of land is all that the Kashmir region has to show for it's first attempt at self-determination after the fall of British occupation. A sliver of land that echoes the mistakes of long dead men. 

Pakistan continues to antagonize the Kashmir people with promises of freedom. It shows the world one face while creating excuses for India's overreactions along the militarized line of control. Playing the victim, Pakistan attempts frequently to fly one flag while preparing to run up another. 

This toying with the fate of the Kashmiri people serves only to satisfy Pakistan's desire to rule the Kashmir region. It serves to keep the region in chaos as the Indian government shifts it's weight to maintain control. In this aspect the government of Pakistan seeks to inflict a death of a thousand cuts... biting the elephant ever so often just to keep it bleeding. As a result the Kashmiri people themselves pay for the callousness of Pakistan's actions. 

The Elephant

India's presence in the Kashmir region has little to do with protecting it's territory or the Hindu minority in the Kashmir state. It has mainly to do with taking what India views is rightfully it's own. When the British left the Indian government that took over was less than willing to recognize the right of Pakistan to exist. This meant that Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) was just as much a nuisance as Pakistan was to the newly founded India. These were all areas that the new nationalist felt rightfully belonged to the Indians themselves. After all, these were all lands that had historically been included in the Hindu realm of influence. 

Kashmir fell into the conflict that originated out of Britain's two state solution through the desire of India and Pakistan to segregate the states by religion. So despite India having no real reason to claim an area that was predominately Muslim, the new government took the opportunity to do just that. Disregarding the initial reason for two states, India took the first excuse that came along. 

When the Maharaja signed over their right to self-determination the Indian military flooded the Kashmir. In a war that threatened to engulf the entire region, the Indian pushed the Pakistani guerrillas out of the Kashmir. Then in a sign of things to come, India turned their guns on the Muslim civilians who they had been asked to protect. This was the initial excuse India used to invade the Kashmir. This was the first sign that India wanted to fulfill the promise of two states for two peoples of two different religions.

An often hidden aspect of India's occupation of the Kashmir are the abuses that the Indian government inflicts upon the Kashmiri people themselves. This was best illustrated during Ramadan when the Indian government violently responded to what began as peaceful anti-Indian protest. This once again highlighted the tension felt by Kashmiri people as they coup with the back and forth between India and Pakistan. It also however demonstrated the methods used by India as it shifts it's weight to crush any opposition to it's dominance in Kashmir. 

(Indian Police Fire Tear Gas At Protesters)

On Eid (the end of Ramadan) tensions flared between Hindus and Muslims as India began to crackdown on demonstrations against the government of India. In Jammu the violence became so incredibly dramatic that it overshadowed the Indian government's abuses across the Kashmir state. Curfews came into affect as the Indian security forces rounded up Muslims for what the state officially labelled "questioning". Those who continued to show passive resistance to the police state tactics were brought "under control" with violent force by the Indian military and police forces. 

What has followed can only be described as a blood bath.

This heavy-handed response to Kashmiri challenges to Indian rule shows the world that India has no intention of allowing a peaceful path forward for Kashmiri peoples seeking independence. Though the original British mandate had indicated the right of the Kashmiri people to choose for themselves to which (if either) government they wanted to belong, India claims they made their choice. There is no room in India's resolve to admit that the Kashmiri people were forced into submission. There is no room for admitting that a bribe was all it took to crush the soul of a people.

Self-determination

 

Without a peaceful path to change...

violence devours all.

Just as with the Uyghur, whom China attempts to subdue through ethnic cleansing, the Kashmiri people will continue to seek a path toward self-determination. Without the right to decide their own fate as a people, as a nation, they will strive toward that end goal relentlessly. It is a condition in the human spirit that is undeniable and cannot be withheld from any people. It is the part of a nation's spirit that gave rise to countries such as India in the first place. And yet it is the portion of the Kashmiri story that has been withheld from the start. 

Britain, in all its mistakes, realized that it could no longer control the destiny of modern nations through military dominance. The empire that never saw the sun set fell because it refused to allow ethnic, religious, and cultural groups the right to determine their own path forward. It was for this reason that many of the areas that the Brits left behind are still in turmoil today.

For Kashmir this hunger has devoured the beauty the land has to offer the world. The culture, the food, the knowledge; all are lost to war and greed. The beauty of it's mountains, it's people, and it's heritage; all are withheld as three beasts of nations continue to rip it's people apart.

Want to learn more about this and other subjects covered by Alder's Ledge?

Follow us on Twitter: @alders_ledge

Follow us on FaceBook: Alder's Ledge

Some of the Source Documents used:

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/world/asia/curfews-imposed-in-indian-held-kashmir.html?_r=0

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/the-flames-of-kishtwar/

Huffington Post 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/10/indian-kashmir-protests_n_3737437.html

Channel News Asia

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/curfew-extended-in-indian/772624.html

Gulf Times

http://www.gulf-times.com/india/185/details/362370/kashmir-town-under-curfew-after-violence

Independent.ie

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/kashmir-protesters-take-to-streets-29486019.html

Voice Of America 

http://www.voanews.com/content/police-clash-with-protesters-in-indian-kashmir/1726504.html

The Struggle Of Man

The Sikh Genocide of 1984,
And The Struggle For Genocide Recognition

For nearly a hundred years the Armenian people have been waiting for the world to recognize the genocide Turkey carried out against their ancestors. The perpetrators of their holocaust are all gone now. Yet every year the Armenian people gather around the world to remember the 1.5 million lives that were lost to the brutality of the Ottoman Empire. The desire, the thirst, for justice never goes away. No matter how long it has been or how few of the criminals are left still alive, a people who suffer the horrific act of genocide never give up the hunger for justice... for recognition.

"When a big tree falls, the earth shakes..."

~ Rajiv Gandhi 

With the death of Indira Gandhi extreme factions in India's government were given the excuse they had been waiting for. With the blessing of Rajiv Gandhi (Indira's son) the radicalized factions in Delhi, and across India, were given permission to seek out Sikhs and kill them with impunity. On October 31st of 1984 the Sikh Genocide began as India's government organized the slaughter. 

"Whoever kills the sons of the snakes, I will reward them."

~ Sajjan Kumar

At the head of the massacre were members of the Indian National Congress political party. Members like Sajjan Kumar openly incited violence by offering bounties for every Sikh that was killed during the genocide. In violent speeches, Kumar vividly depicted where and when the murderers could pick up their "prizes" and just how much any given Sikh was worth... dead. 

From the very night of October 31st the Congress party members began establishing meeting places where mobs could be assembled and weapons supplied. Party members who owned gas stations and other shops willfully handed over the primary weapon of the genocide... kerosene. Instructions and "prizes" were dished out by head members of the INC party as Delhi quickly became a war zone. 

Police in Delhi (and the rest of northern India) were ordered to stand down as long as Sikhs were the ones being attacked. The government of India refused to send in military units to put down what the Congress party called (and still demands they be called) "riots". The pogroms were therefore supported by Indian police and military units that either refused to stop the violence or willingly participated. 

Sikh soldiers in the Indian army were disarmed and imprisoned by their fellow soldiers. In some parts of India these Sikh soldiers were killed while still in uniform. Around 300 estimated Sikh soldiers were executed by fellow soldiers without trial or any form of justice served. 

For the Congress Party this showed an even greater lack of ability to defend themselves once the military had neutralized the threat of Sikh soldiers. This emboldened the Congress Party as it ramped up its efforts. It had already begun supplying its angry mobs with voter lists, school registration lists, and ration lists that all showed where Sikhs homes and businesses were. In addition the Congress Party had provided guides that would show illiterate mobs where the Sikh homes were and what businesses to destroy. 

With lists in hand the mobs made a habit of attacking a house and collecting the dead so as to receive their "prizes". When a Sikh family or individual managed to escape the initial attack they could then be tracked down since their names were not crossed off the attackers' lists. This showed a clear level of organization amongst what the Indian National Congress party called "unruly mobs". 

Police, military, Congress party members, and mobs all participated and perpetrated rapes as a weapon against Sikh women. Sikh women who survived gang rapes were told explicitly that "the next generation will be loyal" after being raped repeatedly. Other Sikh women who survived were burnt alive as a result of their inability to be silenced by their attackers. This legacy of using rape as a weapon still lives on in India today. Sikhs and other minorities are still often the victims of rape since the Indian government does not punish the crime effectively. 

By the time the fourth day ended the Sikh community in northern India had suffered an estimated 30,000 dead with around 2 million displaced. The government of India however only admits to 3,000 Sikh deaths as a result of what it persistently refers to as the "Sikh Riots". By using the term "Sikh Riots" the government of India not only infers that the genocide was caused by two Sikh soldiers who assassinated Indira Gandhi but also covers up the fact that Sikhs were the victims. This permits India to hide it's guilt and complicity in the killings. It is for this reason that the vast majority of the leaders and organizers of the genocide remain free to this day. 

Almost 30 years later the Sikh community still seeks recognition from the world's most prolific democracy and the world's boastfully "largest" democracy. The White House only recently decided that it would recognize the killings as wrong, yet stopped short of calling them genocide. The Delhi High Court on the other hand only refers to the genocide as embarrassing so as to once again refuse to admit that the genocide ever occurred or that the government participated.

Sikhs, Armenians, Congolese, Ugandans, the people of Darfur, and victims of countless other genocides all remain in this struggle. Their history has been violated by the constant whitewashing of it by the rest of the world. In many cases their heritage is nearly erased as their homelands remain out of reach. Their only ability to recall the past remains in the memories that are handed down from one generation to the next. These are accompanied by the wound that time itself cannot heal. 

The struggle of genocide victims never washes away. It must be addressed and recognized for the process of healing to begin. As long as the community that perpetrated the crime is allowed to deny that the crime ever took place, the victimized community will rise up to challenge our perception of history. Their voices echo the pain of their ancestors. Their actions, violent at times, show the world the injustice that we try so desperately to ignore. This is the struggle of a wounded people. It is the struggle to find peace in the blood of innocence. It is a struggle, unfortunately, without end.

"The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was... The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

~ Milan Kundera

Source Documents 

(Note: Not All Sources Listed)

Sikh Genocide.org

http://www.sikhgenocide.org/

Sikhs For Justice.org

http://www.sikhsforjustice.org/?q=content/know-the-facts

Sikh Nation

http://www.sikhnation.net/genocide1984.html

Other sources 

http://www.sikhsundesh.net/genocide.htm

http://www.sikhsiyasat.net/2012/08/14/delhi-massacre-1984-sajjan-kumar-alleges-political-reasons-behind-his-trial-facts-speak-otherwise/

The Wound That Time Cannot Heal

Bangladesh's Persistent Pain
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(During the War in 1971 the dead were often left unburied.)

“Kill three million of them, and the rest will eat out of our hands.” 

~ President of Pakistan, General Yahya Khan

The war for independence that led to Bangladesh being created out of what had been "East Pakistan" was beyond brutal. This scar upon Bengali past has never truly healed and the wound it leaves upon Bangladesh is often readily visible. On February 5th this wound was ripped wide open as protesters took to Shahbagh Square to show their discontent with the verdict given by the International Crimes Tribunal. The verdict handed down had dealt with the numerous crimes committed during the genocide of 1971. And once again, in the Bengali view at least, the world had sided with Pakistan. 

But what really happened in 1971? 

"It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of the Nazis in Poland."

~ as reported by Time magazine, accredited to US officials. 

When Bangladeshis helped elect a nationalist leader, Sheikh Mujib, the Pakistani ruling class decided they had had enough of the "downtrodden races" in East Pakistan". Almost over night the Pakistani military imprisoned Sheikh Mujib and began a campaign of genocide the world was not ready to face. But the storm that was about to be unleashed was not new... it was in fact easily predictable. 

When Pakistan had been cut loose from British rule Bangladesh had been rolled into Pakistani command under the impression that common religious beliefs could bind the two ethnic groups. The racial factor of the unholy union was completely overlooked by Brits and Pakistani officials alike. Britain wanted to be free of the hassles and monetary drag that the region had become. Pakistan wanted control of the region for the resources and power that came with colonial style rule. 

Racist views on the part of Pakistani leaders was evident from the start. Politicians and military personnel alike were openly hostile to the "east Bengalis" they had managed to gain control over. And it was this persistent grinding of their boots upon the neck of Bangladesh that eventually led to bloodshed. Yet this is a fact that Pakistan to this day refuses to admit. 

"East Bengalis…have all the inhibitions of downtrodden races … their popular complexes, exclusiveness and … defensive aggressiveness … emerge from this historical background.”

~ Pakistani General Ayub Khan, 1967

(Stray Dogs Feeding Upon Unburied Bengali Corpse)

When the genocide was initially launched the Pakistani forces set out following the Turkish example laid out in Armenia. During the initial phase of the genocide the Pakistani forces targeted teachers, students, politicians, and community leaders. This was meant to break the Bengali social structure and deprive East Pakistan of its ability to mount a sophisticated form of resistance. It was the same methods employed by The Young Turks, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao. It is the exact method that has been proven successful in every genocide the Pakistani leadership had seen occur prior to 1971. Thus it is evident that the Pakistani government not only knew what they were doing but was intentionally taking on the systematic slaughter of Bangladesh. 

From the very beginning Pakistani military officials had already set a quota for just how many Bengali civilians they wanted to have killed by the end of the year. The acting President of Pakistan, General Yahya Khan, ordered his troops to kill at least three million Bangladeshi civilians so as to "bring the others under control". From that point it was clear that the military would continue to use methods indicative of ethnic cleansing to clear vast areas of Bangladesh and cull the overall population. 

The second wave of the genocide came as Pakistani troops established "rape camps" and permitted troops on patrol to carry out gang rapes of any Bengali women or girls they came across. This portion of the genocide once again mirrored the heinous acts carried out by The Young Turks during the Armenian Genocide. This act of demanding that Bengali females "offer comfort" for the occupying Pakistani troops was a double bladed sword. First it offered Pakistani troops a perverted moral boost as they were given permission to rape any girl of any age they desired. And ultimately it allowed Pakistani officials to cut the birth rate across the Bengali population. 

The second part of using rape as a weapon was complicated in its intent. By bringing "shame" upon the Bengali female victim the Pakistani forces could multiply their initial crime. If the victim was not raped to death and survived the camps or rape patrols she would be forced to live with the crime. This meant that she was forced to hide her "shame" from her family and community or face being ostracized by her own family. In extreme cases the rape victim could face exile from her community or even the rare "honor killing". All of this was known by Pakistani officials and intended by employing rape as a method of ethnic cleansing. 

"In East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) [General Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan and his top generals] also planned to murder its Bengali intellectual, cultural, and political elite. They also planned to indiscriminately murder hundreds of thousands of its Hindus and drive the rest into India. And they planned to destroy its economic base to insure that it would be subordinate to West Pakistan for at least a generation to come. This despicable and cutthroat plan was outright genocide."

~ R.J. Rummel, Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900

The final phase, though carried out throughout the genocide, was distinctly religious in the fact that Pakistani forces targeted Hindu individuals living within East Pakistan. This shows the Pakistani desire to use genocide to cleanse the area they wished to keep under Pakistani rule of outside religions. The fact that Pakistan intentionally targeted Hindus isn't a surprise either... in fact it too could have been predicted by the British and UN long before Pakistan slaughtered them in the 1971 genocide. 

When Pakistan and India were carved out of British held territory the issue of religion came to the surface almost immediately. In the initial fighting the Muslims of what is now Pakistan used ethnic cleansing to attempt to push all Hindus and Sikhs out of what was then West Pakistan. The Hindus on the Indian side of the border also turned to ethnic cleansing to attempt to push all Muslims and Sikhs over the border into what was then West Pakistan. This genocide was complex in the fact that both Hindus and Muslims engaged in genocide to gain their territorial aspirations while Sikhs were caught in the crossfire. It was not the case in 1971 when Pakistani forces engaged in genocide in what was then East Pakistan. 

The intentional targeting of Hindus in Bangladesh was however a point in the genocide where the fog of war blurs the lines between Pakistani guilt and Bengali complacency. There is no denying that Bengali citizens helped Pakistani forces in their genocidal ambitions in clearing out Hindus and the businesses they had built in Bangladesh. Through greed, lust, and outright hatred; Bangladeshi civilians were lured into cooperating with Pakistani forces. 

However, no matter how many Bengali forces helped, the original sin of organizing and instigating of genocide still laid with Pakistani politicians and military leaders. Both ethnic Bengalis and Hindus alike were targeted and slaughtered in the genocide. The means and excuses for doing so may have varied. But the results were the same in both communities. 

(Rayerbazar Killing Field, 1971)

"The genocide and gendercidal atrocities were also perpetrated by lower-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers. These “willing executioners” were fueled by an abiding anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Hindu minority. "Bengalis were often compared with monkeys and chickens. Said General Niazi, ‘It was a low lying land of low lying people.’ The Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews amongst the Nazis: scum and vermin that [should] best be exterminated. As to the Moslem Bengalis, they were to live only on the sufferance of the soldiers: any infraction, any suspicion cast on them, any need for reprisal, could mean their death. And the soldiers were free to kill at will. The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Pakistani captain as telling him, "We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one." This is the arrogance of Power."

~ R.J. Rummel, 'Death by Government'

In the end the government of Pakistan was guilty of killing an estimated 1.5 million Bangladeshi civilians. This number was only half of the intended 3 million Bengalis the Pakistani government had intended to kill during the genocide (officially 'Operation Searchlight'). The only reason for the shortfall in the total number killed however was not failure of intent but military defeat at the hands of stiff resistance to Pakistani tyranny. 

Matthew J. White, in his 2012 book The Great Big Book of Horrible Things, estimates the total Bengali civilian death toll at 1.5 million. R.J. Rummel wrote that, "Consolidating both ranges, I give a final estimate of Pakistan's democide to be 300,000 to 3,000,000, or a prudent 1,500,000." And yet Pakistan is only willing to admit (rarely) that they did kill 5,000–35,000 in Dhaka, and 200,000 across Bangladesh as a whole. But most of the time Pakistan isn't even willing to admit to even the 5,000 figure. Most Pakistani politicians and historians fiercely defend the actions of their government in Bangladesh and insist that any deaths were justified and could never be considered "genocide" or even "massacres". 

(Bengali Militia Executing Pakistani Spies After Pakistan's Surrender)

The outside world both during and after the Bengali Genocide remained oddly silent. UN officials felt that it was more important to address the massacres Bengalis committed against minorities after the Liberation War (another term for the genocide carried out by Pakistan in 1971 due to its leading to Bangladeshi independence). US officials sought to pacify Pakistan and grow an alliance with the defeated nation as US interest in the area increased with Soviet involvement in the region sparked. Europe simply looked the other way as they focused on US involvement in Vietnam and other special interest in the region that seemed more important at the time. 

As time has passed the wound that this genocide left has festered and reopened almost routinely. UN organizations continue to focus on Bangladeshi war crimes while appearing to excuse Pakistani involvement in the genocide. With every snubbing of the massive loss of life the United Nations once again fails to realize it's promise of "Never Again". It also continues to drive a thorn into the side of both Pakistan and Bangladesh as the two nations continue to argue about the historic facts of that ill-fated 1971 war.

Till Bangladesh is given closure the history of the genocide that formed the nation will never be given a chance to heal. Much like other nations who have suffered genocide, Bangladesh will never be fully able to close this chapter of their history in a healthy manner let alone recognize their loss in a way that could heal the national wound. Instead the lives of those lost will continue to haunt the two nations and those who continue to live with their tainted history.

Assam Burns Hotter

-
Death Toll Ticks Upward
(Part of The Darkness Visible post)

I have tried to remain impartial while I watch as two communities fight to survive this horrible outbreak of violence in Assam. I have tried not to invest myself into another terrible conflict. But I can't in either case. My heart goes out to the vulnerable. My soul cries out for the oppressed. And in Assam I can not remain silent as the world covers its eyes once more.

Currently the Assam tragedy is a regional issue. India makes it appear as though they have everything under control. But the region is burning. The vulnerable minority in Assam, the Muslims, are being targeted. And yet the world tells us... "well they are fighting back so its partially their fault".

When did we start telling ourselves the victims of ethnic violence should go to slaughter like sheep? My ancestors didn't disappear into concentration camps like lambs waiting for the butcher. Bosnian Muslims didn't lay down wait for the axe to fall. So why should this latest victim put their heads upon the chopping block and wait for India to hack away?

I am under no illusions of India's capabilities when I state that if India's government wanted to restore order they could in a matter of days. Yet that is how the world wants to imagine it as we pretend that India is the backward hell hole Britain use to run into the ground. We seem willing to accept the Indian governments excuses for allowing the Bodo tribesmen to loot and burn Muslim villages.

I do not accept that the men like this one above are inept and incapable of stopping untrained mobs from attacking and killing unarmed civilians. That toy in his hand isn't a BB gun. It is loaded with the same ammunition used in Russian or Chinese rifles. And that shoot on sight order is supposed to give soldiers like this one the capability to enforce the curfew India set in place in Assam. Yet the world seems willing to ignore all of this while asking the Indian government why the killing is still going strong.

For me it is clear why a Hindu country is slow to act when its Muslim minority comes under attack. When Pakistan and India were divided into two separate nations the area along the border became a seemingly endless killing field. The blood poured on both sides with such hatred that no civilized army dared to step in to stop it. And it is that same grudge that continues to this day.

India is a nation surrounded by countries who do not practice Hinduism. The nuclear stalemate between it and its neighbor Pakistan shows how this division in religious beliefs floats beneath the surface. To add to this you have a porous border with Bangladesh and its Muslim population. India is surrounded by people its population doesn't seem to get along with.

So for those Muslims who live on "the wrong side of the border"... life is hard to say the least. For the Muslims in Assam life is getting hard to hold onto. The separatist groups (exp. the Bodo Liberation Tigers) in Assam want this minority population permanently expelled. They do not want to live in peace next to Bengali Muslims (ironically many of which are as much Indian in nationality as the Bodo themselves) any longer. This is a divide that must be recognized. And the violence that arises from it must be smashed with extreme force the very moment it occurs.

It is never acceptable to have women and children suffer the politics of a nation. Babies should never be born in refugee camps while their mothers fight to find food let alone medical attention. Children should never be forced to live in tents while their fathers remain missing in the fog of battle. This entire situation is headed to the same scale of tragedy that is occurring in Myanmar. And sadly, it shouldn't be happening at all.

Western government which have been helping India's economy boom should now be less worried about jobs being outsourced and more about the human cost of this drastic change in India's societies. With the changes of economic growth and social influences from the outside world the possibility of human rights violations grows. In Assam it is not clear how these factors affect the crisis. But it is clear that the Indian government is failing.

From Washington, London, Berlin, to Paris... the West needs to start upholding its promise of "Never Again" when it comes to the devastating effects of human rights violations. We can not wait for the Indian government to act. We need to spur the Indian government to act and to do so quickly.

No Good News...

...As the Darkness Spreads.
(Part of The Darkness Visible series)

Many Americans have never heard of India's state Assam. More Americans have no idea about why this state in India is important today. And yet the spread of darkness across the globe doesn't care what we know or what we think we know.

Ethnic violence has been growing in Assam for some time now. For about five days now the rioting in Assam has flared out of control. Bodo villagers in Assam have been reported to have sparked the riots when they killed four Bengali Muslims. The fighting really sparked when a fifth Bengali was found dead in a rice field just days later. The fact that Assam police refused to arrest anyone in connection to the killings didn't help at all.

Now the Bodo villagers are resorting to handmade weapons and are attacking Indian security forces. The local's aggression has put the death toll at 40 so far. To add to the problem, thousands of people have been either internally displaced as a result of the fighting forced back over into Bangladesh.

All of this can only be highlighted by the suffering of the most vulnerable portion of the population that is suffering once again. Children of Bengali immigrants (leaving suffering and persecution in Bangladesh) are now being forced to relive the nightmares that had brought them to Assam in the first place. As seen in the face of the child in the picture above, the suffering of these innocent victims can not be ignored.

As far as the actual fighting itself the world must take note that the fighting occurring in Assam mirrors that of what happened in Rwanda. Those who have died are already known to have been killed in hand to hand combat in which the attacker used a machete to disband the unarmed victim. This is a personal style fight. There is no way for an attacker to slaughter a victim in this manner without an incredible level of hatred being involved. This isn't as simple as shooting their victims. To use a machete you have to watch as your victim dies. All the while you are covered in their blood.

We must also understand that the region has long been home to the Bodo Liberation Tigers and their separatist goals. It is an area of India in which the ethnic tensions that sparked this outbreak have run beneath the surface for some time now. And it is a region of India in which this sort of conflict may become a regular occurrence. That is why India's Western allies should be acting now to help in any way they can to help end the fighting.

It is important for every country in the developed world not to just stop ethnic violence where and when it occurs but to also prevent it. We promised ourselves after the Holocaust that this sort of fighting would "Never Again" happen on our watch. Now we are watching as one of the world's fastest growing economies wrestles with its demons. And now we must ask ourselves... can we... will we uphold our promise of "Never Again"?










Sources Used (note not all sources are listed)

The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article3686491.ece

The National
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/south-asia/police-shoot-rioters-as-ethnic-violence-in-indias-assam-continues

The Globe And Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/ethnic-violence-rages-in-northern-india/article4439651/