[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 13643]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           MASS GRAVES HOLD THOUSANDS, KASHMIR INQUIRY FINDS

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                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 14, 2011

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, tonight I wish to call the 
attention of my colleagues to the most recent developments in India-
controlled Kashmir. In late August, the Jammu and Kashmir State Human 
Rights Commission stated that it had found evidence of 2,156 
unidentified bodies buried in approximately 40 mass graves, officially 
recognized for the first time, that pockmark the landscape of this long 
troubled region. This disturbing revelation, while horrific in scale 
and heartbreaking in scope, has the potential to serve as a catalyst to 
propel Kashmir forward, away from its violent past. For the first time, 
everyone in Kashmir, as well as the rest of the world, will be forced 
to acknowledge the wanton violence and unrest that have torn their 
communities apart.
  History has taught us that in conflicts like the one propagated on 
Kashmir and its people, the first casualty is always the truth. The 
findings in this inquiry have now irrefutably confirmed the very worst 
fears of people like myself, who have been concerned about this issue 
since 1989. It is my sincerest hope that when finally faced with the 
sum of their actions to this point, those responsible for these crimes 
will see the error of their ways and summarily be brought to justice; I 
also hope that all of the well intentioned people of the region, 
whether they are Kashmiri, Pakistani, or Indian, can use this tragic 
circumstance to begin to work towards reconciliation, and finally move 
towards a peaceful resolution for everyone living in Kashmir. I am 
submitting an article from the August 23, 2011 edition of the New York 
Times and strongly urge my colleagues to read it.

           Mass Graves Hold Thousands, Kashmir Inquiry Finds

                          (By Lydia Polgreen)

       New Delhi.--Thousands of bullet-riddled bodies are buried 
     in dozens of unmarked graves across Kashmir, a state human 
     rights commission inquiry has concluded, many of them likely 
     to be those of civilians who disappeared more than a decade 
     ago in a brutal insurgency.
       The inquiry, the result of three years of investigative 
     work by senior police officers working for the Jammu and 
     Kashmir State Human Rights Commission, brings the first 
     official acknowledgment that civilians might have been buried 
     in mass graves in Kashmir, a region claimed by both India and 
     Pakistan where insurgents waged a bloody battle for 
     independence in the early 1990s. The report sheds new light 
     on a grim chapter in the history of the troubled region and 
     confirms a 2008 report by a Kashmiri human rights 
     organization that found hundreds of bodies buried in the 
     Kashmir Valley.
       Tens of thousands of people died in the insurgency, which 
     began in 1989 and was partly fueled by weapons, cash and 
     training from Pakistan.
       According to the report, the bodies of hundreds of men 
     described as unidentified militants were buried in unmarked 
     graves. But of the more than 2,000 bodies, 574 were 
     identified as local residents.
       ``There is every probability that these unidentified dead 
     bodies buried in various unmarked graves at 38 places of 
     North Kashmir may contain the dead bodies of enforced 
     disappearances,'' the report said.
       The report catalogs 2,156 bodies found in graves in four 
     districts of Kashmir that had been at the heart of the 
     insurgency. It called for a thorough inquiry and a collection 
     of DNA evidence to identify the dead, and, for the future, 
     proper identification of anyone killed by security forces in 
     Kashmir to avoid abuse of special laws shielding the military 
     from prosecution there. Thousands of people, mostly young 
     men, have disappeared in Kashmir. Some went to be trained as 
     militants in the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir and 
     were killed in the fighting. Many others were detained by 
     Indian security forces. The wives they left behind are known 
     as half-widows, because the fates of their husbands are 
     unknown. Parents keep vigil for sons who were arrested two 
     decades ago.
       Parveena Ahanger's son Javed was taken away by the police 
     on Aug. 18, 1990, and never seen again. An investigation 
     found that he had been killed by security forces, but they 
     have not been prosecuted, she said.
       ``I never got any response from the government,'' she said. 
     ``I never got his dead body.''
       After years of fighting in the courts to find out what 
     happened to Javed, Ms. Ahanger was skeptical that the human 
     rights report would get her son's body back, or bring her 
     justice.
       ``If the high court doesn't give any justice on this issue, 
     what will the state human rights commission do?'' she said.
       Zahoor Wani, an activist who works with the families of 
     people who disappeared during the insurgency, said that the 
     report was a welcome first step but that the government must 
     identify the dead and allow families to bury their relatives.
       ``It is a very good thing that they acknowledge it,'' Mr. 
     Wani said. ``These families have been living in a hope to see 
     these people again.
       ``They are neither dead nor alive,'' he said. ``We need to 
     move them to one pole or the other.''
       Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

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