He also demanded a white paper from the government on all missing persons of the state.
JAMMU: Maintaining that for correcting the black history of the state for the last seventeen years, President of National Conference Omar Abdullah said that time has come for constituting a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the state to probe all cases of human rights violations since 1989 on the pattern of one constituted in South Africa to probe crimes of apartheid.
Speaking at a press conference here today, Omar Abdullah said that time demands that all the cases of human rights abuses since 1989 whether committed by troops or militants in the state are investigated and guilty be brought to book. He said that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission should be on the pattern of one constituted by South Africa to probe the crimes of apartheid.
“It is good to have judicial inquiry when there is one case, but in a condition where there have been disappearances, and different people give different versions about it and other cases, truth and Reconciliation Commission has become a stipulation on part of the state government, the sooner they do it, the better it would be,” Omar said.
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He added that parents of the disappeared have a right to know where their young children have gone. He also demanded a white paper from the government on all missing persons of the state.
“We know some of them have gone across the Line of Control, but there are others, everything should come up, let the clear their misgivings,” added the president of National Conference. He stressed that inspite of being a part of the coalition’s Common Minimum Programme (CMP), the Human Rights Commission continues to be a hapless organization.
“Had the human rights commission been working properly, we would not have pressed for judicial probe in cases of human rights abuse,” said Omar. He added that National Conference seeks definitive action against violators the human rights. Omar said that during the budget session, National Conference exposed the inability of the state government in preventing human rights violations.
“Our legislators exposed the weakness of the state government in keeping its words by raising issues of public importance, finding it difficult to face an onslaught of the opposition on the situation of human rights in the state, Even Chief Minister felt helpless before our legislators and remained out of the assembly for the most part of the session,” added the NC president.
He added that National Conference stalled the working of the state legislature for three days during the session, forcing the government to announce a judicial probe into the five cases of alleged custodial killings. He stressed that the party had also forced the government to announce a judicial probe into the killing of four boys in village Doodhpathri in Handwara.
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“See the working of the government, that probe was constituted in September last year and its report is yet to be presented,” added Omar.
Talking on the lines of the Patron of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Omar said that if the claims of the state government are to be believed, then there is a strong case for demilitarization from the areas where the government is claiming the situation has improved.
“The state government has all the inputs regarding the security scenario in the state, if it feels that situation has become conducive for demilitarization, it should seek withdrawal of security forces from those areas where the situation has improved,” said Omar.
Omar further said that there should be no dramatization of the issue of the withdrawal of security forces.
“Let us accept the harsh reality that there would be presence of troops in the state and the situation would never improve to the extent that forces would withdraw themselves,” said the National Conference Chief.
He said that his party is of the view that the presence of troops does not go well with the improvement in the ground situation.
“We cannot afford to have an endless presence of troops in the state if we want to restore the confidence of the people, some movement has to be made,” he said. Talking about the Self-rule proposal of the People’s Democratic Party, Omar said that the party has failed miserably in clearly explaining its proposal of self-rule.
“Whatever new comes from either ‘Islamabad or New Delhi, they say that it is a part of their formula, they are themselves still unclear about the definition of the formula being proposed by them,” added Omar.
However, he said that National Conference is ready to discuss the formula whenever PDP comes up with it. “Although, whatever PDP has said so far is already there in our proposal, let them come out with a document in a debatable form,” added Omar.
He also said that there is no need to celebrate the verdict on the Baghliar project.
“There is nothing to rejoice in the verdict on Baghliar, till the time sword of Indus water treaty is there, we have no reason to rejoice,” added the NC president.
He maintained that a lot is happening diplomatic front over the Kashmir issue. “There are things that we are not able to understand but those are happening on Track I, Musharraf does well in publicity while the government of India is doing the same silently,” he said. He said that Pakistan President Parvez Musharraf keeps on changing his expression regarding the Kashmir issue making it softer and negotiable with each passing day.
(This article was originally published on Feb 17, 2007)
