Letter: Human rights activists face death in Kashmir

Sir: Tim McGirk's reports on Kashmir ('Kashmiri student tells of torture' and 'Kashmir's rebels step into the open', 25 and 26 May) confirm that gross and persistent human rights violations are being perpetrated there by the Indian occupation forces.

The Parliamentary Human Rights Group published reports last year on torture of civilians since the uprising in 1990 and on the findings of our special representatives, who visited the territory on our behalf following the Indian authorities' refusal to let a parliamentary mission travel to Srinagar. Since then, we have drawn the attention of the Foreign Secretary to a new and sinister phenomenon - the murder of persons who are either human rights activists themselves, or closely associated with activists.

The arrival of extra divisions of Indian troops in Kashmir, where there were already upwards of 300,000 soldiers and paramilitaries, cannot prevent the expression of the people's will to self-determination. It serves only to emphasise that whatever the level of violence, Kashmiris will never be reconciled to the imperialist rule of New Delhi.

Eritrea became independent this week, to the congratulations of the whole international community, including the former occupying power, Ethiopia. This brought an end to a bloody and destructive conflict, which had continued for 31 years while the great powers, including Britain, continued to insist that a federal solution was best for the people of Eritrea, irrespective of their own wishes.

It is tragic, and frustrating, to see that we have learnt nothing from that experience.

The massacres, rapes, tortures and disappearances in Kashmir cannot be stopped until the Indian forces are withdrawn, and the people of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir are given the same right of deciding their own political future that every other former colonial people has now realised.

Yours faithfully,

ERIC AVEBURY

Chairman, Parliamentary Human

Rights Group

House of Lords

London, SW1

27 May