Fresh International Efforts To Resolve Kashmir Dispute

The international Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) has decided to take several steps on Kashmir. Apart from increasing the number of members of the Kashmir Coordination Group, it has also been decided to provide scholarship to Kashmiri students studying in universities and institutions of Muslim countries. It has also been decided to form a human rights commission on Kashmir, which would bring out a report on the Kashmir situation.
Visas to Kashmiris
Abdul Aleem, the special representative on Kashmir, gave this information in Brussels, where an international meeting on Kashmir had been held. This shows the OIC has become active over the Kashmir issue, and has started taking action. The UAE has started issuing stapled visas to Kashmiris. This practice has been started with the prime minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The UAE spokesperson said that issuing stapled visa was right since Kashmir was a disputed territory. There is no violation of any international law in this practice. China had also earlier granted stapled visas to Kashmiris on the ground that Kashmir was a disputed territory.
Need For International Lobbying
Meanwhile, two senior members of European Parliament have said it was in the interest of both India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue. They said the two countries have been ignoring the Kashmir issue due to their vested interests. They said influence and domination of army in Pakistan has weakened democratic institutions.
To strengthen democracy, army had to be kept away from institutions. They felt the need for international lobbying on the Kashmir issue. They said Indian interests were linked with Europe. Europe could play a role in resolution of the problem. They said the Kashmir issue was the only issue that had been hampering the progress of the two neighboring countries. It is said the United States and the United Nations have been silent.
Track-Two Diplomatic Front
Kashmir has thereby been seeing a new turn in the situation. Countries of the world want this issue to be resolved. This can be done only through sincere efforts. Leaders of the two countries also want this. On Track-Two diplomatic front, former diplomats, former army officers, and civil society also want this issue to be resolved.
If this takes place, it can lead to freedom of South Asia from poverty and disease. If this issue remains unresolved, all other issues seem insignificant.

OIC Foreign Ministers' Council Meeting

Expressing its concern about absence of a coordinated dialogue process regarding the resolution of Kashmir issue, the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) has demanded implementation on the resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council in this regard. The 37th session of the OIC Foreign Ministers' Council was important for Pakistan because the OIC members, especially the Secretary General of the organization, Prof Akmal ud Din Ehsan Oglo expressed concern about situation in Kashmir and demanded of India to immediately resolve this issue in accordance with the UN resolutions.

Approach To Disputes
Although the OIC is called as the representative organization of the Islamic countries, yet practically it could not effectively represent the Islamic countries. The organization failed to carve out a significant place and importance for it like the European Union, whose members are united at a single platform in spite of having different shades of opinion.

Unfortunately, all Islamic countries of the world are members of this organization but everyone has its own agenda. The Arab countries are still under the notion that being Arabs, they are superior as compared to other nations. There have been differences among the Arab countries about heading the organization. Many countries claim that since they are the political leaders of Arabs, and they should be approached for every issue. At times it happens that the Arab countries bring the disputes emerging in the Arab League to the OIC because of which the OIC meetings are disrupted.

Kashmir Problem
Instead of terming the Palestine problem as the problem of the entire Muslim community, they term it as the problem of Arabs only and do not like the intervention of others in it. This may be the reason that this issue could not have been resolved so far. Similarly, they do not take interest in the Kashmir issue because it is not the problem of the Arab countries. If the OIC fails to resolve the problems of the Islamic countries, the Islamic countries will be justified in asking the question as to what is the objective of the organization. If all the Islamic countries get united, and decide that they will have resolved their problems, both the problems can be resolved.

The Kashmir issue is not as complicated that 57 Islamic countries cannot resolve it together. Only practical measures are required for this. The world powers have a realization that Islamic countries are not united. That is the reason that no importance is given to their voice.

Practical Measures
The Islamic countries can get their importance accepted by practical measures. If all the Islamic countries, particularly the Arab countries, decide that they would prefer Pakistan over India, and coordinate with Pakistan instead of India in case of trade and manpower, then India will become willing within a few days to resolve this issue. Both the countries have fought three wars on Kashmir issue.

If any war breaks out in future, it will be, God forbid, a nuclear war and the entire world will be affected by it. That is why the statement of Akmal ud Din Ehsan Oglo is correct that resolution of Kashmir issue is important for the world peace.

Tripartite Conference on Afghanistan

Recently, an urgent conference was held between foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. The conference recognized the important role of these three countries in establishing peace, stability, and development of the war-torn Afghanistan. It was also stressed that only those countries should participate in the conferences who are the immediate neighbors of Afghanistan. The foreign ministers of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan agreed on the expansion of this tripartite conference and stressed on the need for the inclusion of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan¸ Tajikistan and Peoples Republic of China.

Handling Osama
If this conference is viewed in the background of the international conference held in the United Kingdom earlier this month, this conference is taking place to exclude India from this group. This enjoys the support of the Western powers and it is probable that China is also supporting this move. This step should have been taken prior to launching the attack on Afghanistan, when George W. Bush was asking for handing over Osama Bin Laden. He had rejected the Taliban offer of handing over Osama Bin Laden to a neutral country. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan had cut off their diplomatic ties with the Taliban, although these countries had recognized the Taliban government earlier. In this regard, the oppressive Pervez Musharraf violated the international law laid down in the Vienna Convention of 1961 and 1963, by handing over the ambassador of Afghanistan, Mullah Zaeef, to the United States.
The US security officials slapped him while taking him into custody. He fell on the ground as a result of the slap. Later his beard was shaved and put in the Guantanamo Bay prison. No crime was proved against him and he was later released. This act is so shameful that if any other country does the same act with a US ambassador, the United States will have no right to object to that. Since, this is a tradition of international diplomacy, that if any nation misbehaves with an ambassador of a country, that country has the right to misbehave with the country's ambassador in the same manner.
Since the 9/11, Afghanistan is on the international radar. It has been occupied by 42 countries, including the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members. They have been authorized by the UNSC to capture Afghanistan under the garb of establishing security in the country. Russia and China are not part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), so this whole solely US drama. The other countries in this drama have no more value than the pawns of the chessboard. At present, 68,000 US forces are present in Afghanistan and during the current year additional troops will be arriving at regular intervals. As a result, the total strength of the US forces will reach the 0.1 million mark.

Prevailing Situation
It is evident from this that the United States wants to remain occupied in this region. However, Barack Obama because of the public pressure had announced a conditional troop withdrawal by 2011. Moreover, the US generals and other officials have been constantly saying that they cannot give a fixed deadline for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. The US special ambassador to Afghanistan and Pakistan has said that the withdrawal will be equivalent to surrender. Therefore, the US forces in Afghanistan cannot be called back. This is dependent on the situation prevalent in the country.
These are the ground realities. Afghanistan is an occupied country and Hamid Karazi is a puppet president of the occupied forces. The present Pakistani Government is also subservient to the United States. They are not even able to stop the drone attacks on their own soil as accepted by Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar. As far as Iran is concerned, it in spite of being against the United States has accepted and is actively supporting the pro-US Afghan and Iraqi Governments. Iran did not oppose the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq. Let alone this, it has also been supportive of these attack because of its open rivalry with the governments of the Taliban and the Ba'ath Party. The Khatami government, in particular, openly supported the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The United States also had the support of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for attack on Afghanistan. On 16 May 2001, US General Tommy Frank went to Dushanbe and offered special military aid for Tajikistan because of its strategic position. The dictator ruler of that country agreed to join NATO "for the sake of peace."
At present, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan have operational US Army bases and provide other facilities. In all these affairs, Russia is also included and has allowed transit facility for the nonmilitary equipment to the occupying forces in Afghanistan. As far as Pakistan is concerned, they are fighting the US war for the sake of the $1.5 billion aid. It is also raising a loud hue and cry for more aid because their economy has been destroyed because of this antiterrorism campaign. However, China is a silent spectator in this scenario and is watching this scene. It has only raised concerns about the presence of such a large US and NATO forces close to its border, but nothing more than that.

Development of Afghanistan
The conference highlighted all states involved in the theatre of war taking place in Central and South Asia, so that it becomes evident on the readers that except for China there is no neutral state. Although India is not close to this region, the Western powers are trying to involve India into this conflict. India gained the maximum from the fall of the Taliban government. It seems as if they have taken the contract for the development of Afghanistan. They are involved in making roads, bridges, dams. In addition, they are training the Afghan Police.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta and Abdallah Abdallah are both pro India as is evident from their anti-Pakistan planning and policies. Then, how can anybody talk about the exit of the Indians from Afghanistan. No doubt, Shah Mahmood Qureshi can call such numerous conferences, but the opportunity to solve this problem has been lost by the Pakistani rulers when it could be sorted between the regional states. As far as Americans are concerned, as previously stated, they along with their European allies and puppet rulers of the developing countries launched an offensive against Afghanistan. In addition, they by involving the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) have made this problem an international issue. Now, when the United States is feeling that it is unable to defeat the freedom fighters, it has asked its counterpart, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, to arrange a carnival. Naturally, the London Conference is going to be an international affair rather than a regional one since all countries involved in the Afghan crisis, the United States, France, and Germany are not part of the regional states. All these countries have come from a long distance to loot this country. Their mere presence in the region is the reason behind chaos, uncertainty, restlessness and terrorism in the region.

Establishing Consensus
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) had a dominant role in this area but that also has become ineffective like the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). Afghanistan was the NAM fundamental member, but now when it is facing a difficult situation, NAM is not paying any attention to the same. When Russia assaulted Afghanistan, NAM had passed a resolution for the withdrawal of foreign security forces and armed militants from Afghanistan and establishing a consensus government in Afghanistan. As a result, then Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev did pull back his army from there, but the United States is worse colonial power than Russia. It wants the control of oil wealth of Iraq and by occupying Afghanistan, the United States wants to stop the supply of gas from the Central Asian states to South Asian states.
I fail to understand the Russian policies as to why it does not openly oppose the US aggression and occupation in Afghanistan. Although the United States is expanding and establishing its military bases in the Central Asian states. It is also trying to get into Ukraine and Georgia. In addition, it wants to have a puppet regime like that of Karzai and to include these countries in NATO. On contrary, Russia has failed to counter the US aggression in Georgia and the West.

Assessment
If a conference is held of the regional countries regarding Afghanistan, it will be known as a US drama because of the participants mentioned in the above lines are all partial and want to strengthen the Karzai government. Now, Karzai does not have even the confidence of his parliament. How can the Taliban have confidence on those countries that have been supporters of the Northern Alliance and are still supporting them? Therefore, this issue can only be sorted out by a war for freedom, which it has been carrying out for the last nine years.