DATE=9/7/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=KASHMIR REFUGEES
NUMBER=5-44205
BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE
DATELINE=NEW DELHI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Earlier this year tens of thousands of people
who live in mountain villages in Indian Kashmir fled
their region after armed infiltrators from Pakistan
occupied strategic peaks overlooking their fields and
their homes. For eleven weeks, from May until the end
of July, the Indian army and the guerrilla
infiltrators fought fierce battles along the mountain
ridges of Kashmir. The conflict brought India and
Pakistan to the brink of war until Pakistan agreed to
work to withdraw the infiltrators. Now more than a
month after the conflict ended many who fled their
homes have yet to return and some say they will not go
back anytime soon. Correspondent Jim Teeple recently
visited some of the refugees from Kashmir and has
filed this report.
// Act of boy singing.establish, and fade under text
//
Text: A young boy sings an old love song in the Shina
language - a language almost no one speaks outside the
high mountain villages of Kashmir.
The boy is a long way from his home in the village of
Pandras which sits just 12 kilometers from the Line of
Control which divides Kashmir between India and
Pakistan. The boy and his father, Gulum Ahmed, fled
Pandras in late May after shells began falling all
around them as they were getting ready to plant their
crop of barley. Ever since then they have lived 100
kilometers to the south, off a dusty road in a
temporary settlement near the military garrison town
of Sonamarg.
Now four months after he fled his home and his fields,
Gulum Ahmed is packing up to return. He is unsure
what awaits his son and him or whether he will even be
able to return to his home. Indian Army troops
occupied his sturdy stone house built into the steep
mountains which surround Pandras.
Unlike refugees from other conflicts, the Pandras
villagers never saw a United Nations refugee worker or
a Red Cross dispensary. The Pandras villagers were
internally displaced and were left to the care of the
Indian government - a government the villagers say was
only concerned with fighting a war and regaining lost
territory. Gulum Ahmed says promises of government
aid never materialized, and he and his neighbors had
to rely on charity from the villagers in Sonamarg.
// ACT/W TRANSLATION //
He says we were looked after well by the villagers
nearby, these nearby people instead of the government.
Gulum Ahmed says he has received assurances from the
district commissioner in Pandras that his house is
safe and that he will be given enough food to make it
through the coming winter, when temperatures can fall
to minus 30 degrees Celsius. The villagers left their
homes in May just as they were getting ready to plant
their winter crops.
// OPT // Of the 35 families who fled Pandras in May
more than half are now returning home, but several
say they are staying put for the time being. Seventy-
year-old Nur Mohammed says his house was destroyed
during the conflict and all of his possessions are now
gone. He says he'll stay in Sonamarg because at least
there he can find work as a laborer and be able to
feed his family. Nur Mohammed says he is also tired
of hearing about all of the fundraisers being staged
to help out families of soldiers who died or who were
wounded in the Kashmir conflict. He says something
should also be done to help those who were displaced
by the fighting.
// ACT W/TRANSLATION //
He says no doubt the soldiers fought for the country.
The people of India collected money for them, but we
also suffered and they did not bother for us. At
least we should get ten percent of that money because
our houses and all of our things were destroyed.
Indian officials defend their treatment of the
refugees saying their main concern was to save lives.
Gurbachon Jagat, chief of police for India's Jammu and
Kashmir State, says most of those who fled their homes
in northern Kashmir have returned. The rest, he
predicts, will be back before the first snow falls
next month.
// JAGAT ACT //
The government did set up camps for them, and
arrangements were made to give them rations on a
larger scale than similar situations before. As
far their current status is concerned, most of
them who come from Dras, Pandras and other
villages, they have gone back home.
// END ACT //
Many of the Pandras villagers disagree, saying the
Indian government could and should have done more to
make their lives easier. Still those who are
returning say it's time to get on with their lives
even though the next few months could be worse than
their lives in Sonamarg. The Pandras villagers
proudly say they come from the second coldest place on
earth after Siberia. They say they were not
prepared for the war that forced them from their homes
but they survived. Now they say they hope they
survive the coming winter. (Signed)
NEB/JLT/BK/KL
07-Sep-1999 10:40 AM EDT (07-Sep-1999 1440 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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