[sacw] Documents - Pakistan-India Peace Convention, 6-8 April 2000

Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
Wed, 19 Apr 2000 15:18:17 +0200


South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
19 April 2000
___________________________

Dear Friends,
The pages below contain the Bangalore Declaration and the Resolution
on Kashmir adopted by the Fifth Joint Convention of Pakistan-India
Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy. The Forum is a civil society
organisation of Indian and Pakistani citizens committed to peace. It was
set up in 1994. The Forum has so far held five joint conventions in
Delhi, Lahore, Calcutta, Peshawar and Bangalore. In each of these Joint
Conventions hundreds of Pakistani and Indian delegates belonging to all
walks of life have participated. This time the convention was held under
very difficult circumstances. The Indian Home Ministry in the last
minute refused to allow the Pakistani delegates to cross over from
Lahore by the land route on grounds of "security". A case was filed in a
civil court in Bangalore by an activist of the ruling Hindutawa brigade
claiming that the Forum was planning to bring in hundreds of ISI agents
into India in the name of a civil society peace convention. Even the
Copngress party led government of the state of Karnatak was afraid that
the holding of the convention might create law and order problem in
Bangalore. Fortunately the court finally threw out the plea of Mr.
Hiranyappa and the convention was successfully held. In this Joint
Convention nearly 500 delegates fron India and Pakistan defying the
pressures of the governments of India and Pakistan and the ultra
nationalists forces, renewed their pledge to work for peace.

Tapan K.Bose

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Bangalore Declaration
Adopted on April 8, 2000
By the Fifth Joint Convention of
Pak-India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy

1. Meeting in critical time of war, threats of war, nuclearization, and
the persistent obstacles placed in the path of the assembly of the peace
loving peoples of the two countries.

2. In pursuance of its objectives of normalization of relations,
demilitarization and peace, a democratic resolution of the Kashmir
problem, promotion of tolerance, democracy and good governance, and
joint endeavour against the common threats to the economies of India and
Pakistan by unfettered globalization.

3. Being aware of the increasing danger of deliberate or accidental war
breaking out with the risk of any conflict escalating to the level of
nuclear holocaust.

4. Concerned about repeated incidents of religious intolerance and
hatred in both countries rooted in deprivation, backwardness, power
politics and misconceived notions of national interest.

5. The Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy in its
=46ifth Joint Convention held at Bangalore, India, on 6-8 April, 2000.

6. DEMANDS an immediate resumption of dialogue at the highest level,
reversal of current military build-ups, horizontal and vertical
denuclearization and a comprehensive non-war pact, effective steps
towards internal demilitarization and in the interim, until a complete
roll back of the nuclear weapons and delivery systems programmes of both
countries, a no-first use agreement, consent to the CTBT, rejoining the
discussions on the FMCT and move towards the declaration of South Asia
as a nuclear-free zone.

7. CALLS upon Governments of India and Pakistan to order cessation of
all hostilities along the Line Of Control by all forces directly and
indirectly under their control, the various militant organizations of
Jammu and Kashmir to eschew violence, the Government of India to release
all political detenus, so that the peoples of all sections of Jammu and
Kashmir can decide their future in a democratic manner, achieve
reconciliation, and the representatives of the Governments of India,
Pakistan and of the peoples of Jammu and Kashmir strive together to find
a solution acceptable to the peoples of Jammu and Kashmir and the
sub-continent in the larger interest of peace and democracy.

8. DEPRECATES all attempts to curtail the facilities of travel and
communications between India and Pakistan and calls upon the two
Governments to rewrite the protocol and allow all people to travel
freely.

9. RESOLVES to link the joint struggle against unfettered globalization
with the struggle for democratization of our societies, co-operate in
building food security through a sustainable agricultural strategy that
excludes the MNC controlled seed- biotechnology-pesticides cycle, share
appropriate and small technologies, address water management and
distribution issues on a regional basis, extend most favoured nation
status to each other, forge a common strategy to tackle environmental
degradation of common ecological regions and evolve joint strategies
on multilateral negotiations such as WTO and plant breeders rights.

10. DEMANDS the two governments to ensure popular participation in
governance through decentralisation and devolution of power to the
grassroots with adequate safeguards, provide basic amenities to the
people, institutionalise transparency, responsibility and accountability
in governance, ensure security of the minorities, prevent crimes
against women, end child labour, protect common people against
displacement from traditional habitats in the name of development,
break the politician-criminal nexus, preserve and extend freedom of
expression along with the right of access to information, reverse the
trend of politicisation of education leading to a collapse of
standards, and defend cultural rights and freedoms.

11. DEMANDS immediate steps for the realisation of women's basic rights
and their legitimate aspirations.

12. CALLS upon the educationists and the people in general to work
towards ways of inculcating values of cooperation, tolerance, harmony,
through all possible means, particularly curricula and prescribed
textbooks, print and visual media, undertake investigations of incidents
of communal violence to bring the findings to the notice of the
people, organise exchanges of children and teachers, and to be aware of
and monitor possible misuse of places of worship and religious
educational institutions for the promotion of preaching and promotion of
hatred and intolerance.

13. RESOLVES further to take concrete steps both jointly and separately
in each country including formation of working groups to implement the
above resolutions towards the realisation of its aims and objectives.

Sd/- Sd/-
I.A. Rehman Admiral (Rtd) L. Ramdas
Chairperson Pakistan Chapter Chairperson India Chapter

Bangalore
April 8, 2000
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=46ifth Joint Convention of
Pakistan-India Peoples=92 Forum for Peace and Democracy
Bangalore, India
April 6-8,2000
Resolution on Kashmir

Adopted by the Plenary on April 8, 2000

Convinced of the indivisibility of peace and democracy, the Pakistan
India Peoples=92 Forum for Peace and Democracy is gravely concerned at the
state of hostile relations between India and Pakistan and its impact on
their on their domestic politics as also on the two civil
societies.

Alarmed by the "limited war" in Kargil area of the Jammu and
Kashmir last summer by forces that possess nuclear weapons with the
potential of causing a nuclear holocaust;

Realising that the hostility between the two countries has encouraged
forces of reaction to whip up war hysteria and jingoism with the
concomitant attack on people's freedom in the name of "national
security"

Recognising that peace as a condition of democracy requires a degree of
normalcy in relations between the two countries;

Considering the urgency for creating conditions conducive for beginning
peace talks among all concerned and mindful of the central role that all
the people of Jammu and Kashmir must play in its resolution, we the
members of the Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy call
upon Government of India and Pakistan to order cessation of all
hostilities along the line of Control by forces directly or indirectly
under their control;

Simultaneously, we call upon government of India to halt its military
campaign, which is imperilling the life and liberties of the people of
Jammu and Kashmir; also we call upon the government of Pakistan to
exercise all control and restraint over the mindless violence of the
mujaheed and jehadist groups.

We appeal to the various militant organisations of Jammu and Kashmir
(and their over-ground supporters) and the state security forces to
eschew violence and particularly the use of rape as an instrument of
war, and to agree to resolve all political and other differences
exclusively through peaceful and democratic means. We urge them to
declare cease-fire voluntarily with immediate effect and to create
conditions conducive for democratic and peaceful negotiations.

Recognising that it is the peoples of Jammu and Kashmir who have the
democratic right to decide their political future, and that they must
get an opportunity to meet and confabulate.

We also call upon the political parties, the militants and the groups
who support them in India held Jammu and Kashmir as well as in Pakistan
held Jammu and Kashmir to dedicate themselves to achievement of
reconciliation, and mutual trust, and to the protection and vindication
of the human rights of all as a mark of respect to those who have died
or been injured, and the thousands of families who have been rendered
homeless during the last five decades of violence.

We also call upon the governments of Pakistan and India to confer and
cooperate with all the representatives of the people in all areas of
Jammu and Kashmir. Both governments should facilitate a process by which
the peoples in all the areas of Jammu and Kashmir can choose their
representatives who can then engage with the governments to determine
their future. As a first gesture, the Government of India should
immediately release all political detenus. The talks between the
representatives of the peoples of Jammu and Kashmir may be held both at
bilateral level as well as at a tripartite level. The talks between
Government of India and the representatives of India held Jammu and
Kashmir as well as between the Government of Pakistan and the
representatives of Pakistan held Kashmir, should be held in the presence
of a group of eminent persons of the respective countries so that the
process of dialogue remains transparent, free from intimidation and
negotiations do not breakdown.

As a step towards beginning purposeful negotiations, we call upon the
political parties and other groups in different parts of the former
state of Jammu and Kashmir to acknowledge the fact that governments of
India, Pakistan as well as different groups of peoples of Jammu and
Kashmir hold divergent views on questions of continuance of status quo
and of legitimate political aspirations of the participants, especially
of the right of exercising sovereignty, wholly or partly, over the whole
or part of the territories of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir.

We also call upon the political parties and other groups on both sides
of Jammu and Kashmir to recognise the difficulties that the governments
of India and Pakistan would face to modify their historical public
stances. We also urge the governments of India and Pakistan to recognise
the inalienable right of the peoples of Jammu and Kashmir to decide
their political future. This is why it is important that all the three
parties, representatives of the governments of India and Pakistan as
well as that of the peoples of Jammu and Kashmir, together must strive
to find a solution that may be generally acceptable to the peoples of
Jammu and Kashmir and the subcontinent in their larger interest of peace
and democracy. They should recognise that durable peace and tranquillity
in the subcontinent takes precedent over all other considerations. For
this reason they would strive in every practical way towards
reconciliation and rapprochement keeping in view that in all agreements
contraction of sovereign power in one political domain can be a gain in
another.

We believe that it is from such an effort that the contours of a
likely solution will emerge.