[Pak-Media] KCEU Hold Candlelight Vigil on Kashmir Solidarity Day

PRESS RELEASE

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KCEU Hold Candlelight Vigil on Kashmir Solidarity Day

KCEU, together with a crowd of peaceful supporters hed a candlelight vigil outside the residence of the Prime Minister of Belgium.  The Vigil, on the Global Kashmir Solidarity Day, is a peaceful and solemn event to remember the people of Indian Held Kashmir and those that have lost their lives in their struggle for freedom.

The crowd observed the vigil in serene silence holding flickering candles to signify the hope that the people of Kashmir have in seeing this issue resolved.

Kashmir solidarity day, observed allover Europe as well as in Indian Held Kashmir and the rest of South Asia is much more than an annual gathering of people that are in solidarity with the Kashmiri cause.  It shows the moral support for the legitimate claim to self-determination as recognised by the UN, government representatives of its member states and the individuals who commemorate this day in Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Dublin, Den Hague and other cities allover the world.

Addressing the crowd Barrister A. Majid Tramboo stressed the need for the countries, people and governments of the European Union and the kingdom of belgium to stand in solidarity with the people of Jammu & Kashmir in realising their right to self-determination pursuant to the United Nations resolutions.  He stressed that the route to this is through a reduction in human rights abuses by Indian forces coupled with dialogue that necessarily includes Kashmiris.  

Highlighting the recent European Parliament resolution in which paragraph 33 "stresses that human rights, democracy and security are essential elements of the relationship between EU and India; calls, therefore, on both sides to ensure that dialogue on open issues is stepped up, with particular reference to Kashmir" Barrister Tramboo called upon the European Commission and Council to make good on the wishes of the European Parliament.  He stressed that KCEU would continue to work with all European actors to ensure that their recommendations are carried through.

As the observers walked down Rue Belliard and the vigil concluded a memorandum was delivered to the Prime Minister of Belgium, H.E. Elio Di Rupo, on behalf of the people of Kashmir the text of which is reproduced below:

MEMORANDUM

Presented to Prime Minister of Belgium

on the 5th of February, 2011 in Brussels:

His Excellency Elio Di Rupo

Prime Minister of Belgium

We humbly and respectfully request that your offices, uniquely positioned at the heart of the EU, take note of the ongoing conflict in Jammu & Kashmir and the inherent denial of human rights therein. 

Kashmir Centre.EU represents no government or government agency; we work on behalf of the oppressed people of Kashmir with the intention of raising awareness, increasing respect for human rights, and achieving self-determination for the people of Kashmir.

Therefore, on this the Kashmir Solidarity day we, the European representatives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, expatriates and our sympathizers, wish the people of India well, but we want them to know that the people of Kashmir also want their Right to Self-Determination.  Therefore, 

Recalling all of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council for upholding the right to self- determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir;  

Recalling all of the resolutions passed by the OIC in Casablanca in 1993;

Recalling the report adopted by the European Parliament on 24 May 2007 in which the European Parliament upheld the Kashmiris right to self-determination;

Recalling the urgency resolution of the European Parliament on Kashmir's nameless and mass graves; 

Rejecting any other mechanism, elections or acts of constituent assembly imposed by the occupying power as an alternative to the right to self-determination; 

Condemning the unabated serious crimes, torture, extra-judicial killings, custodial deaths and disappearances, fake encounters, arbitrary detentions, destruction of houses, shops and villages, and rape as instruments of suppression by the Indian Government through its military, paramilitary forces and its mercenaries; 

Now Calling upon the H.E. Di Rupo to stress upon the Government of India the need to:

    1.    to implement the United Nations Security Council resolutions on the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people; 

    2.    to withdraw the forces from the territory of Jammu and Kashmir;

    3.    to uphold the European Parliaments resolution on mass graves in Kashmir and allow a thorough and impartial investigation;

    4.    To put an end to the consistent suppression of human rights through practices such as arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and summary or arbitrary execution and so on;

    5.    to release all political prisoners and detainees;

    6.    To respect international human rights norms and the treaties to which India is a signatory including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; 

    7.    to allow access to major human rights NGOs and humanitarian organisations in the state of Jammu and Kashmir;

    8.    to ensure that justice is served for the families of 120 who were killed at the hands of the Indian forces in the summer of 2010.

Barrister A. Majid Tramboo

Chairman

ICHR Kashmir Centre.EU