[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 42 (Thursday, April 10, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1408]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            KASHMIRI PANDITS STRIVE TO RESUME PEACEFUL LIVES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring to the attention of this 
body and the American people a terrible tragedy that recently occurred 
in India's State of Jammu and Kashmir. On March 21, in the village of 
Sangrampora, 15 unidentified terrorists rounded up eight members of the 
Kashmiri Pandit community and shot them outside their homes. Seven of 
the victims died. While the cold-blooded murder of innocent people is 
always shocking and horrifying, what makes this incident even more 
appalling is the indication that the victims were singled out simply 
because they were Hindus.
  Mr. Speaker, for thousands of years Kashmir has been inhabited by 
Hindus known as Kashmiri Pandits. These original inhabitants of the 
Valley of Kashmir have lived peaceful lives in one of the most 
beautiful areas of the world. Sadly, the efforts of the Kashmiri 
Pandits to live their lives peacefully and constructively has been 
disrupted by militants armed and trained by outside forces intent on 
changing Kashmir from a secular, multireligious land into a 
fundamentalist state.
  The effects of this proxy war, which the evidence strongly indicates 
is supported by Pakistan, have been the death of thousands of people, 
the devastation of the economy, and the creation of a huge refugee 
population. Virtually the entire population of 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits 
has been forced to leave their ancestral homes and property, living in 
refugee camps in various cities in India in subhuman conditions. Only 
2,000 Kashmiri Pandits still remain in the Kashmir Valley, and they 
have been turned into refugees in their own country.
  The current round of violence is not the first example of the 
victimization of the Kashmiri Pandits. For centuries, they have been 
subjected to the atrocities and subjugation committed by invading 
peoples. On October 22, 1947, 2 months after India became independent, 
Pakistan attacked Kashmir to annex it by force. Four days later, 
Maharajah Hari Singh, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, requested India's 
military assistance to save Kashmir from the Pakistani invaders and 
took the case to the United Nations, which called for a cease-fire, 
followed by complete withdrawal of Pakistani forces from the occupied 
area, as a precondition to a plebiscite under U.N. supervision. Sensing 
the anti-Pakistani mood of the Kashmiri people, Pakistan did not comply 
with the U.N. withdrawal condition. Instead, Pakistan made two more 
futile attempts in 1965 and 1971 to annex Kashmir by force.
  Although Pakistan maintains that they are only providing moral and 
political support for the insurgency, evidence shows that Pakistan has 
been playing a direct role in arming and training the militants.
  I have met with members of the Kashmiri-American community who have 
told me that Hindus and Muslims can and have lived in peace in Kashmir. 
The real tragedy is that outside influences are fueling religious 
rivalries and foreign policy agendas that pit Indian against Indian.
  Mr. Speaker, as the cochairman of the Congressional Caucus on India, 
I believe that the United States and the international community must 
not allow the practice of ethnic or religious cleansing to continue. 
India has tried hard to help the Kashmiri Pandits. India deserves our 
support, both in assisting the refugees and in ending the proxy war 
being waged in Jammu and Kashmir.
  Programs such as USAID, the Agency for International Development, 
could be one vehicle for the United States to provide more direct aid, 
humanitarian aid, I should say, for these displaced people. We should 
also use our considerable influence with Pakistan to urge that nation 
to cease support for the militants and to crack down on terrorists 
harbored within their borders.
  I want to applaud India and Pakistan for trying to break decades of 
tension by having their foreign ministers meet in New Delhi recently. 
It has been the highest level meeting between these south Asian 
neighbors in 7 years. The foreign minister's meeting, Mr. Speaker, 
actually took place yesterday. I hope this will be a sign of the 
relaxation of tensions that will benefit all the people of India and 
Pakistan. Especially with this new climate of cooperation, I think 
ultimately it will help the Kashmiri Pandits go back to their ancestral 
homeland and resume their peaceful lives, which is really all they want 
to do.

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