EU diplomats in Kashmir on fact finding mission
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Srinagar, India, March 3, IRNA -- The visiting European Union Troika Mission delegation has said that the elections were no solution to the Kashmir problem but provided a window of opportunity to resolve the lingering dispute.
The five-member delegation comprising of ambassadors of Czech Republic, Hynek Kmonicek, ambassador Lars Olof Lindgren of Sweden, ambassador Ion De La Riva of Spain, Deputy Head of Mission Jan Kreuter, representative Czech Republic and French representative, Bruce Bourdon.
During their three-day visit, diplomats met a cross-section of people including top leaders from both pro-India and separatist camp besides military commanders, trade union representatives, human rights activists and journalists to acquaint themselves with the post-election scenario.
Emerging from his meeting with Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Kmonicek, who also heads the delegation, told reporters that EU diplomats were here on a fact finding mission.
"We have tried to meet everybody, who is involved in the situation here. Human rights violations including the recent incidents will be part of the factual information report that we will be submitting to the European Commission," Ambassador Kmonicek told reporters outside Mirwaiz's Nageen residence.
Haynek said that they will not make any judgments. "We will report whatever we have heard from the people here," he said.
Refusing to comment on the prevailing situation he said, "I think whosoever we met has shown interest in the peaceful resolution of the issue."
"Huge turn out in the elections was unexpected but it added another dimension of the change. Although some call it an opportunity, many others term it as a signal for being cautious," he said, adding, "We will be reporting the happenings and mood of people in our report to the Commission."
Earlier Mirwaiz told the EU diplomats, "The elections were just for basic amenities and will not have any affect on the Kashmir dispute. New Delhi was trying to hoodwink the international community by linking the turnout in polls as referendum."
Mirwaiz said. "Government of India was relying on military might to crush the spontaneous movement for the right to self-determination and her forces were killing innocents and implicating youth on frivolous charges."
Mirwaiz urged upon the EU to recognize Kashmiris as the basic party to the dispute and help facilitate their participation in any negotiations between India and Pakistan on the issue.
Mirwaiz told the diplomats that former Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf's four-point formula was suitable for resolution of the Kashmir dispute. He sought the help of European Union in this regard. "I believe European Union can play an important role in starting process of dialogue and resolution of Kashmir dispute according to UN resolution and as per the aspirations of Kashmiris," he said.
Mirwaiz suggested to the European Union to launch projects and help create economic zones in both sides of Kashmir.
Stating that they are aware of both the aspects of this conflict, Ambassador Hynek, whose country holds the presidency of EU currently said, "We infer that everything is going in the reasonable direction. We will try to start more and more Kashmir centric projects to be funded by the EU."
Hynek told reporters, "We really believe that the new dynamic Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will be able to capitalize on that popular support to deliver, especially on good governance and address basic problem such as unemployment."
Earlier the delegation had a luncheon discussion with senior journalists. They also met the leading human rights activists besides state appointed head o Human Rights Commission.
Delegation also met the top brass of Army, police and other paramilitary forces.
On Sunday, the delegation had met with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, and the PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti besides Governor Vohra.
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