DATE=2/14/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=PAKISTAN / KASHMIR REFUGEES
NUMBER=5-45452
BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE
DATELINE=MUZAFARABAD
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Ten years ago, a violent separatist
insurgency began in India's Jammu and Kashmir State.
Thousands of young Kashmiri men joined the insurgency
seeking independence for their Muslim-majority state.
Now -- ten years later after tens of thousands have
been killed -- the insurgency has largely failed, even
though separatist guerrillas continue to inflict
casualties on Indian forces in Kashmir. V-O-A's Jim
Teeple reports the fight over Kashmir has created a
sizeable refugee population which, ten years on,
continues to provide willing recruits to the deadly
struggle over Kashmir.
TEXT:
// ACTUALITY OF SINGING BOYS..EST..AND
FADE UNDER TEXT //
Young boys sing what they call a "fighting song," in a
drab and dusty square in the Ambor refugee camp. The
boys sing of mothers sacrificing their sons to the
struggle for "Azad Kashmir," or "Free Kashmir."
Ambor is about five kilometers south of Muzafarabad,
the capital of Pakistani Kashmir.
The camp sits precariously on a steep hillside
overlooking the swift muddy waters of the Jhelem River
-- the same river which flows through Srinigar, the
ancient capital of Kashmir and the city which many of
Ambor's residents formerly called home. It is now in
Indian Kashmir.
Mohammed Abdullah Lone, a former guerrilla fighter
who is now a teacher in the camp, says everyone in
Ambor shares the same goal.
// LONE ACT //
All the persons who live in this camp -- the
young, the old, men and women and small children
-- they all have one thought and one mission:
the freedom of Kashmir. All of our children
say we will fight until we get freedom.
// END ACT / /
// OPT // Ten years ago, when the violent separatist
insurgency began in India's Jammu and Kashmir State,
many of Ambor's current residents left Indian Kashmir
-- crossing the "line of control," which divides the
disputed territory between India and Pakistan. The
refugees say they fled out of fear and because of
threats by India's security forces -- a charge India
disputes. Both countries claim Kashmir, in its
entirety. Two of the three wars India and Pakistan
have fought since independence have been over Kashmir.
There are about 15 thousand refugees from Indian
Kashmir who now live in 13 camps on the Pakistan side
of the line of control. // END OPT //
For ten years it has been the refugees who live in the
dusty camps that ring Muzafarabad who have been
supplying the bulk of the fighters who slip across the
line of control, to fight India's security forces. The
fighters call themselves "Mujhadeen," or "God's
warriors." India calls them terrorists.
There is scarcely a family in the Ambor camp that has
not lost a family member as a result of the fighting.
Many, like Sayed Suleiman Shah and his wife Hajara
Bibi, have lost more. The two 70 year-olds lost both
of their sons in the holy war, as they call it, to
free Kashmir. They both say their sons were martyred
and they have no regrets. They also say they gladly
sacrifice their grandchildren for a free Kashmir.
// SHAH ACT.TWO VOICES W/TRANSLATION //
We want to sacrifice our grandsons and
granddaughters for the freedom of Kashmir. We
will give every sacrifice for the freedom of
Kashmir. We will fight until the last drop of
blood.
// END ACT //
Pakistan supports the camps and many of the Mujhadeen
groups who cross the line of control to fight Indian
security forces.
One of those fighters is Sadiq Butt, who says he is
fighter for the Hizbul Mujhadeen, or Party of God's
warriors. The 30-year-old guerrilla says he has
returned to Ambor for some rest after a mission inside
Indian Kashmir. Sadiq Butt says -- as soon he feels
rested -- he will head back across the line of
control.
// BUTT ACT //
When I get a chance I will go back. After a
rest when I get a chance I will go back.
// END ACT //
Sadiq Butt says the trip back across the line of
control is not easy. He says it takes about eight to
ten days, hiking over five thousand-meter mountain
passes in bitterly-cold conditions. He says the
fighting is actually easier, because -- as he puts it
-- the Indian forces he faces do not want to die
while he and his colleagues he says have no fear of
dying for their cause. (Signed)
NEB/JLT/WD/rae
14-Feb-2000 15:03 PM EDT (14-Feb-2000 2003 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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