Azad Kashmir - Free In Name Only
This
year, on October 22nd, the ongoing conflict in Kashmir will have been running
for 68 years. It is a conflict that has claimed many thousands of lives, that
has seen some of the worst of human rights abuses, and which threatens to bring
India and Pakistan - both nuclear powers - to war for a fourth time.
Following
the end of British rule in 1947, the state of Pakistan was created alongside
India. States were allowed to choose whether to join India, Pakistan, or to
remain independent. Whilst Hari Singh, the Maharaja of Kashmir, favoured
independence, Pakistan had anticipated the annexation of Kashmir to it’s own
territory. Due largely to the procrastination of the Maharaja, a Hindu, events
spiralled out of control, and Muslims in the state revolted. Local militias and
Pakistani forces attempted to occupy the city of Srinagar, but were checked at
Uri, in the west of Jammu Kashmir. The Maharaja turned to India for military
assistance, prompting intervention by Pakistan, and the first conflict between
the two nations began.
The
war continued until 1948, when India sought help from the United Nations. The
result was UN Security Council Resolution 47 (21 Sept 1948), which called for a
withdrawal of troops, and for a plebiscite, or referendum, whereby the Kashmiri
people could decide their own future. Pakistan failed to withdraw it’s troops,
the plebiscite never happened, and the conflict between what is now a divided
nation, occupied by Indian and Pakistani troops, and partially administered by
China, which does not accept that the region of Aksai Chin is a part of Kashmir
at all, rages on.
Whilst
in simplistic terms the ongoing dispute and resultant conflicts may by seen as
the continuation of the disagreements that followed independence, the dynamics
driving the matter may have changed. There may now be both political and
commercial factors standing in the way of a resolution. Kashmir, and its
abundant natural resources, appear to be up for sale, and it is not the
Kashmiris themselves who are doing the selling.
China
has committed the substantial sum of $ 45 billion towards what is know as the
China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This corridor, which will connect
China’s north-western region of Xinjiang to the Pakistani port of Gwadar, will
develop transport, communications, and energy infrastructure in Pakistan. It is
also intended to improve intelligence sharing between the two countries, who
are becoming ever closer. CPEC will be a huge strategic asset to China, and it
represents the country’s largest ever such overseas investment.
CPEC
will run directly through Azad Kashmir, which is controlled by Pakistan.
A
close look at the individual projects that comprise the project show an
emphasis on water infrastructure. China is facing an impending water shortage
crisis. It has a agricultural sector that consumes very high quantities of
water - rice and cotton especially - its growing energy requirements require
water and it has a huge and growing population. The aquifers are drying up, and
China must soon take its water from somewhere else. Kashmir has water in abundance,
and a relatively small population.
The
Neelum-Jhelum Dam, currently under construction 40 km north of Muzaffarabad,
the capital of Azad Kashmir, is being built by a Chinese consortium, and is due
to be completed in 2016. Much of the work on this, and other projects in Azad
Kashmir, is being undertaken by the Construction Corps of the People’s
Liberation Army (PLA).
Azad
Kashmir is also rich in valuable minerals, such as Gipsum, Lemonite, Mica,
Marble, Ruby, Turmaline, Bentonite, Yello Ocher, Pyrites, Limestone and
Dolomite. It has an abundance of wildlife that can rarely be found elsewhere.
Many of its native species are endangered.
Central
to CPEC is the existing Karakoram Highway, which is currently being widened
from 10 metres to 30 metres, enabling it move heavy, and possibly military
vehicles from China to Gwadar Port, situated on the Arabian Sea in the
Pakistani province of Balochistan, the capacity of which is also being
significantly increased. PLA soldiers are reported to be stationed near to the
Khunjerab Pass, on the Azad Kashmir side of the border, close to the Karakoram
Highway. Chinese military officials are also, it is reported, to be found at
Gilgit, the Pakistani military headquarters in the region. When questioned on
the matter recently by the New York Times, Chinese officials did not deny the
presence of elements of the PLA in Azad Kashmir.
“Although ‘azad’ means ‘free,’ the residents of Azad Kashmir are
anything but, The Pakistani authorities govern Azad Kashmir with strict
controls on basic freedoms.” - Brad Adams, Asia Director of Human
Rights Watch (2006)
Speaking
to EU Today, Jamil Maqsood, Foreign Affairs Secretary of the United Kashmir
People’s National Party, said “In Islamabad, foreign policy is being
taken over by the military, and China is increasingly influencing that policy”. He further told us “When it comes to our land and
our resources, it is the Kashmiri people who are the stakeholders, but when
these matters are discussed in Islamabad, or elsewhere, we are not even invited
to the table”.
The
US has also been subject to criticism for supporting the Pakistani economic
exploitation of Kashmir. In October 2014, the government of India lodged a
protest with the US government for supporting infrastructure projects in the
region. Earlier that month, in Washington DC, US special representative for Afghanistan-Pakistan
Dan Feldman, US ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson, along with other key
officials had attended a conference organised to raise investment funding for
construction of the Diamer-Bhasha Dam.
Both
China and Pakistan will benefit strategically from the situation that we now
see developing. In a few years time, Islamabad will effectively own Azad Kasmir
with the political, economic, and military backing of China.
And
so now it would appear that the long suffering people of Kashmir, for nearly
seven decades pawns in a violent political struggle, now face a new threat:
economic colonialism. They, their land, their natural resources, and their
cheap labour are all now seen as little more than investment opportunities.
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