Kashmir (Hansard, 15 December 1993)

§ 11. Mr. Knapman
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans Her Majesty's Government have to assist in resolving the problems in Kashmir.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
We have repeatedly urged India and Pakistan to resolve their dispute through bilateral negotiation. I welcome the recent announcement that talks will be resumed early in the new year.

§ Mr. Knapman
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his careful reply and for his excellent speech during an Adjournment debate last week. Will he reconsider the position in Kashmir, where thousands of people have been slaughtered—probably tens of thousands during the past three to four years—as that is poisoning relations between two of our oldest allies, India and Pakistan? In addition, if the pressure for substantive early bilateral talks between those two countries fails, will my hon. Friend refer the matter to the United Nations, which first passed a resolution on the matter in 1947?

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
The best prospect at the moment is the resumption of talks, as my hon. Friend says. That is the way that we wish to be taken and we hope that there will be some progress. Of course, we have always made clear to the Indian Government our concern about human rights violations in Kashmir. There should be a dialogue and a political process in Kashmir, and an improvement in human rights there.

§ Mr. Madden
Does the Minister agree that lasting peace will come to Jammu and Kashmir only if any political settlement is acceptable to the overwhelming majority of the people living in that region? If that is the case, does he agree that representatives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir should be directly involved in any discussions on Kashmir that are convened between the Governments of India and Pakistan?

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
As I said to the hon. Gentleman during the Adjournment debate the other night, the participants in any discussions must be a matter for the two parties to decide. But certainly we have always urged and continue to urge on the Indian Government the need for a political process in Kashmir.

§ Mr. Clifton-Brown
Does my hon. Friend agree that when the two parties—the two Pakistani Foreign Ministers and the Indian Prime Minister—meet in January, they should make progress and that, above all, international observers should be allowed into Kashmir so that the rest of the world can see what is going on there?

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
My hon. Friend is right that people should go to Kashmir, and I have repeatedly urged that on representatives of the Indian Government. That is what we would certainly like to see.

Dr. John Cunningham
The Minister is right to welcome the news that India and Pakistan are to begin at Foreign Secretary level in January discussions on mutual problems, including the circumstances in Kashmir. Should not all friends of India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir welcome that small but positive step forward? Was not it good news that the siege and occupation of the Hazratbal mosque in Srinagar ended without bloodshed?
We welcome the decision by the Government of the Republic of India to agree that Amnesty International should be given access to Kashmir to report on the circumstances that prevail there. Finally, I press on the Minister the need for the Government of India to be unequivocally told that the human and democratic rights of the people of Kashmir should be upheld in any settlement that may emerge.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
It is precisely because we respect the Indian Government as a democratic Government that we expect the rights of the people of Kashmir to be upheld and we are bringing pressure to bear on the Indian Government to recognise those important facts. I am glad that Amnesty International has recognised that there is positive progress in being able to go to India. I cannot confirm that Amnesty International has been invited to Kashmir, but it thinks that it will be able to visit the Punjab.