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Kashmir: A Continuing Perennial Regional Problem of South Asia

Kashmiri muslims carry the body of Sameer Ahmed during his funeral procession in Srinagar, India, Monday, Aug. 2, 2010. Government troops fired into crowds of protesters Monday as tens of thousands of people across Indian-controlled Kashmir demonstrated their rejection of India's rule over the predominantly Muslim region, police said.

AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan) updated 8/2/2010 3:20:37 PM ET

India and Pakistan after separation have been contesting each other’s claim as to the region of Kashmir causing the region to become a perennial problem of South Asia. The regional Kashmir problem, we have been facing since 1947, has never been viewed in a historical perspective in South Asia. That is why it has defied solution so far, and its end is not in sight in the near future. Politicians at the helm of affairs during this nearly half a century have been living from hand to mouth and are waiting for Pakistan to face them with a fait accompli. Once again they are out to hand over Kashmir and its people to be butchers who have devastated this fair land and destroyed its rich culture. Sixty years on, the tragedy of Kashmir still lingers and is most visibly embodied today in the Valley by the presence of one of the highest concentration of military personnel in the world.

Kashmir belongs to whom?

The reality is that it is an orphan territory to be occupied by whosoever carries a gun? But it also is an integral part of an ancient country and the extension of a great culture? Those who regard themselves as sons and daughters of that ancient country and as inheritors of that great culture they are the ones that been enslaved and brutalized and alienated from their ancestral society and culture by a terrorist and totalitarian cult. To whom does Kashmir belong? Does it belong to the country and the culture which has suffered and survived brutal assaults by the terrorists and totalitarian cult? Or does it belong to the imperialist enclave which has been torn away by force from an organic whole and which is being used as a launching pad for further assaults on what has survived of the ancient country and the great culture?

Humanistic solution in Kashmir

This is the question which should be posed and answered by all those who are concerned with what is called the Kashmir problem but what, in fact, is the problem presented by terrorist and totalitarian ideologies operating under religious cloaks. And it must be admitted that none of these questions can be answered except with the help of history. A humanistic solution is one based on removing hatred from the minds of people. And what creates the hatred in the minds of the majority community in Kashmir? The Quran does it by calling for the conversion or slaughter of all non-Muslims. The restoration of democracy is also a viable solution to this problem.

Effects of the Days of Partition

Although the nature of aggression from the days of Partition may have changed, violence continues on an almost daily basis with the deaths of civilians, but also armed forces and resistance fighters. This has far reaching implications for the society as a whole. If the Kashmir debacle, 60 years ago was complex, today it has become embroiled in an array of issues which add to the chaos and confusion further prolonging the tragedy. To bring the problem to a close all involve must confront its roots.

References:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/02/2970366.htm?section=justin

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gwfOJCB_u0Qyvqbv4W7_cwv6E3SQ

August 9, 2010 Posted by | News | , , , , | Leave a Comment

Cluster Bombs: Added to the List of Prohibited Weapons

A model of a functioning cluster bombs currently on development

William Crawley | 21:41 UK time, Wednesday, 28 May 2009

The list of prohibited weapons has been increasing each passing year and cluster bomb weapons have been added to that long list. Prohibited weapons are being enforced around the world to prevent casualties and cause disabilities among people. Human civilization in its brilliance has produced some of finest inventions ever known. But it also has produced some of the most horrible creations, those that bring death and suffering. Over the course of human history man has sought to make waging war efficient and easy and this gave rise to various weapons like cluster weapons.

Cluster bombs and Artillery shells

Cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched weapons that open in mid-air and scatter dozens, hundreds, or thousands of smaller submunitions (or bomblets) over a wide area. Such munitions are effective against targets that do not have fixed locations, such as enemy soldiers or vehicles, and also against precise positions, such as airfields and missile sites. Artillery shells that employ principles similar to cluster munitions have existed for decades. And then when that happens, they explode, wreaking havoc on the lives of children, farmers, and other civilians who were just going about their day until a de facto land mine blew off their legs. They would be fortunate to have survived.

Awareness of international community regarding effects

Over the past several years, the international community has become increasingly aware of the deadly effects of the widespread use of cluster arms in areas of conflict and civil instability around the world. More and more, policymakers in national governments and international organizations, academic researchers, and the personnel of a wide range of both nongovernment relief and human rights organizations have experienced firsthand, or been accumulating data and knowledge about, the widespread death and injury caused by these weapons in dozens of conflict ridden countries. These weapons, some about the size of a Diet Coke can, get launched and plaster indiscriminate areas of land. Some of them explode on contact, but many get lodged in fields, strung from telephone wires, or embedded in trees, waiting for some innocent bystander to accidentally touch them.

Effects on non-combatant

Since unexploded bomblets scattered by cluster munitions can remain dormant for years after a conflict ends and then be triggered by a non-combatant (often a child), the Cluster Munition Coalition, the International Committee of the Red Cross, United Nations organizations, other organizations, and many nations began negotiations to produce a treaty banning submunition-based weapons in 2007. A draft treaty that would outlaw cluster bombs and give ratifying nations eight years to destroy such weapons was approved by more than 100 nations in May, 2008, and signed in December 2008.

Treaty ratification in 2010

Recently this treaty received the 30 ratifications necessary to enter into force in 2010. However among the nations that did not participate in the conference that adopted the draft were the United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and Israel.  What is striking is that the nations that did not participate in this monumental effort are the very same ones that popularized and openly use cluster weapons. So long as they are not made to abide by this treaty that attempts to make warfare humane the atrocious consequences of war will continue to malign humanity.

Reference:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0802/1224276042814.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/08/20108161921618518.html

August 9, 2010 Posted by | Science & Technology | , , , , | Leave a Comment

   

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