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Interview: Kashmir separatists seek revived India talks

Original Source: http://www.globalgoodnews.com
Author: Sheikh Mushtaq
Original Publication Date: 22 September 2009

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – Kashmir’s main separatist alliance wants to revive peace talks with India to find a solution to the decades-old problem plaguing the disputed Himalayan region, a leading separatist leader said on Sunday.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Chairman of the separatist alliance All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, said he also hoped to initiate a dialogue simultaneously with Pakistan to push the peace process forward.

What that solution will be has not yet been defined, but experts say it could be more autonomy for the region. Both India and Pakistan, which have fought two wars over Kashmir, claim the region in full, but rule over parts of the region.

‘Hurriyat is very serious and very keen, we want to resume dialogue with New Delhi and we want to initiate a dialogue with Islamabad,’ Farooq, 37, told Reuters in an interview in his plush bungalow residence near the banks of Dal Lake.

‘Military means, use of force, oppression has failed. I am hopeful now that India realises a growing urge for solution of the Kashmir issue.’

Farooq’s new call for dialogue reflects public sentiment in favour of further efforts to find a solution to the separatist issue. Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital, has been virtually free of violence for a year and tourists are returning.

Hurriyat started talks with New Delhi in 2004, the first between the two sides since a revolt demanding independence began in 1989. More than 47,000 people have been killed.

LAST TALKS WITH DELHI IN 2006

The latest round of Kashmir talks was held in May 2006. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Hurriyat agreed then to establish a system to discuss solutions to the dispute over Kashmir, dating from the partition of the Indian subcontinent in the late 1940s.

‘I am hopeful that a process will restart and yield results fast if India releases prisoners, gradually withdraws troops and repeals the black laws,’ added Farooq, referring to draconian laws giving security forces expanded powers against insurrection.

Officials say there are nearly 3,000 political prisoners in Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, where around half a million Indian troops battle Muslim militants.

But violence between militants and troops has declined considerably in Kashmir after India and Pakistan started a peace process in 2004. India called a pause to those talks after last year’s attacks on Mumbai.

Hurriyat split itself in 2003 when hardliners headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani walked out after moderates decided to hold talks with New Delhi.

‘I suffered because I initiated the talks, Inshallah we will take the Kashmir struggle to its logical conclusion,’ said Farooq, who is also Kashmir’s chief priest and delivers sermons every Friday to thousands.

Farooq was educated at a Christian missionary school and married a U.S.-based Muslim.

His uncle was shot dead and the region’s oldest school that he ran was razed after Hurriyat launched talks with New Delhi. Though under guard, his house has been attacked several times with grenades.

‘We have a very strong case and we should not be scared to talk,’ he said. ‘But we want peace with honour and dignity, not the peace of the graveyard.’

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