SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2213east; continued detention throughout the country of thousands arrested under specialsecurity legislation; lengthy pretrial detention; prolonged detention while undergoingtrial; occasional limits on freedom of the press and freedom of movement; harassmentand arrest of human rights monitors; extensive societal violence againstwomen; legal and societal discrimination against women; female bondage and forcedprostitution; child prostitution and infanticide; discrimination against the disabled;serious discrimination and violence against indigenous people and scheduled castesand tribes; widespread intercaste and communal violence; societal violence againstChristians and Muslims; widespread exploitation of indentured, bonded, and childlabor; and trafficking in women and children.Many of these abuses are generated by a traditionally hierarchical social structure,deeply rooted tensions among the country’s many ethnic and religious communities,violent secessionist movements and the authorities’ attempts to repress them,and deficient police methods and training. These problems are acute in Jammu andKashmir, where judicial tolerance of the Government’s heavy-handedcounterinsurgency tactics, the refusal of security forces to obey court orders, and terroristthreats have disrupted the judicial system. The number of insurgencyrelatedkillings in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast by regular security forces increasedfrom the previous year. In the northeast there was no clear decrease in thenumber of killings, despite negotiated ceasefires between the Government and someinsurgent forces, and between some tribal groups.The concerted campaign of execution-style killings of civilians by Kashmiri militantgroups, begun in 1998, continued, and included several killings of political leadersand party workers. Separatist militants were responsible for numerous, seriousabuses, including killing of armed forces personnel, police, government officials, andcivilians; torture; rape; and brutality. Separatist militants also were responsible forkidnaping and extortion in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states.In July one of the largest Kashmiri militant groups announced a unilateralceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir and offered to open a dialog with the Government.The Government responded by instructing its military forces to reciprocate theceasefire, accepting the offer of dialog, and beginning talks. The ceasefire and talksended abruptly in August when the militants demanded the start of tripartite talksbetween themselves, the Government of India, and the Government of Pakistan.During the same period, Pakistan-backed militants opposed to the ceasefire attackedand killed more than 100 civilians, many of them Hindu religious pilgrims,at several locations in Jammu and Kashmir. On November 26, the Government institutedits own unilateral suspension of offensive action for the Muslim holy monthof Ramadan in Jammu and Kashmir and offered to initiate dialog with militantgroups that wished to come forward for talks. The Government extended theceasefire on December 20, and it remained in force at year’s end. The Governmentalso continued to pursue a dialog with Kashmiri militant groups, but no formaltalks had begun by year’s end.RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTSSection 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killings.—Extrajudicial killings by governmentforces (including deaths in custody and faked encounter killings) continued tooccur frequently in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and several northeasternstates, where separatist insurgencies continued. Security forces offered bounties forwanted militants brought in dead or alive.Official government figures indicate that security forces killed 1,520 militants inencounters in Jammu and Kashmir as of September, compared with 1,082 militantskilled by about the same time in 1999 (Kashmir has been at the center of a territorialdispute between India and Pakistan since the two nations gained their independencein 1947; both claim Kashmir). Kashmiri separatist groups maintain thatmany such ‘‘encounters’’ are faked and that suspected militants offering no resistanceare executed summarily by security forces. Statements by senior police andarmy officials confirm that the security forces are under instructions to kill foreignmilitants, rather than attempt to capture them alive. Human rights groups allegethat this particularly is true in the case of security force encounters with non-Kashmirimilitants who cross into Jammu and Kashmir illegally. According to press reportsand anecdotal accounts, those persons killed typically were detained by securityforces, and their bodies, bearing multiple bullet wounds and often marks of torture,were returned to relatives or otherwise were discovered shortly afterwards. Forexample, on the night of April 29, police took into custody Said Hafeez Mehraj, analleged militant, at a public telephone booth in Srinagar; the police deliveredMehraj’s body to his family the following day. Family members allege that the policeVerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00057 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.035 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1