India and Pakistan open historic trade routes in Kashmir

New Delhi, Oct 21 (EFE). - India and Pakistan today took a step forward in relations with the opening of two trade routes in the disputed Kashmir region, disputed since the independence of both countries in 1947.
After more than six decades closed to trade, thirteen Indian trucks garlanded carpets and loaded with apples, walnuts, almonds, black mushrooms and paper mache crossed the Line of Control that separates the two countries and divides Kashmir into two.
Only two steps are approved: the road between the towns of Muzaffarabad (Pakistan) and Srinagar (India), known as "route of Jhelum", and the connection between Rawlakote (Pakistan) and Punch (India).
On the Indian side, the regional governor, NN Vohra, gave vent to the column of goods, in a ceremony witnessed by hundreds of people wearing their best clothes and celebrated with drums, India news agency reported IANS.
"Trade is good for everyone. It will be a good contribution to relations between the two countries. Now much will need to know the business, "he told Efe by telephone the president of the Chamber of Commerce Indian Kashmir, Mubin Shah.
The opening of the routes was agreed by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during their meeting last month in New York, having been recommended by a high-level bilateral commission.
But trade is limited to 21 products subject to local permits.
In addition, the trucks of each country shall not enter 20 kilometers into the territory of the other, where they deposit the load on local vehicles that lead to its final destination.
The two steps had already been open to the movement of people in 2005.
With the decision to open these routes now to trade, both countries respond to the demand of the Kashmiri nationalist parties, who had insisted on the measure during the summer riots in India's part.
"Welcome the opening of the route. It is a significant first step. But what we want is an agreement that addresses the problem real cashmere, "he told Efe by telephone spokesman independence training Hurriyat, Abdul Ghani Butt.
Between July and August this year, 40 people were killed in clashes in India's part arising from the controversy over the possible sale of public land to a committee of pilgrimages to the Hindu temple of Amarnath.
The riots between Hindus and Muslims led to an economic blockade on the region, traders attempted to break a protest march to Muzaffarabad, but police prevented them from crossing the border and seven people died from gunfire.
Cyclic scenario outbreak of violence and several wars since independence and partition of the subcontinent, the Kashmir territory is divided between India (with 45 percent), Pakistan (35 percent) and China (20 percent).
India and Pakistan, both nuclear power, have embarked on a slow process of thawing since the 1999 Kargil conflict would lead the former U.S. President Bill Clinton, to describe Kashmir as the "most dangerous place on earth" .
But now they are still frequent shootouts between both armies at the border and also clashes with insurgents armed independence groups dozen operating in the Indian side.
In its territory, India faces the demands of the Kashmiris, the only majority-Muslim country, which will have the opportunity of manifest regional elections planned in seven phases, for November and December.
Although the authorities are confident that these elections take place without incident, the elections have already been boycotted by the separatist Hurriyat Conference, according to his spokesman confirmed today.
"Elections are not the answer. We are not against democracy, but we want a true reflection of the aspirations of the people. Hurriyat why not go to the elections, "said Butt.

The northeast Indian, a bitter conflict which caused thousand deaths in 2007

New Delhi, April 25, 2008. - Although the world knows Kashmir as the main conflict that threatens to India, is in the northeast of the territory where there has been a drain by the action of some thirty separatist groups, that the year last killed 1,091 people.
The small northeastern states of India, an underdeveloped corner and just connected by a strip of land with the rest of the country have seen their armed groups opted for terrorism against civilians, often immigrants from other regions in search of Indian job.
"The situation has improved in Kashmir. Now the east is the main challenge. There are groups like United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) to attack people of different ethnicity, "a source told Efe the Indian Ministry of Interior.
The conflicts of the northeast have been ranked as the bloodiest, ahead of the Maoist rebellion (837 dead) and Kashmir, which killed 740 people including civilians, insurgents and members of security forces, according to two reports released this Interior weeks.
Nearly 1,500 violent acts recorded in 2007 in the Northeast took the lives of 498 civilians, 79 security officers and 514 insurgents, which in total represents an increase of 39 percent over the previous year.
The state of Assam, the largest and most important of the territories, which has its stronghold the ULFA, which in recent months has carried out a wave of attacks against civilians immigrants that has claimed the lives of 287 people.
"There are more deaths because the groups face each other and also attacked civilian targets more often. And then set off bombs in places where population is concentrated, "he told Efe the coordinator of the department of Peace Studies and Conflict at the University of Guwahati, Nani Gopal Mahanta.
In Assam there were more than 100 explosions last year, many in crowded markets, and attacks against members of minorities in non-Assamese origin, such as Hindi-speaking migrants from the plains of the Ganges.
Although the ULFA, fighting for independence since 1979, is the culprit identified by the police in many of the cases operated in the northeast around 30 groups scattered throughout the regions of Assam, Arunachal, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura.
Their demands range from mere claims of independence and tribal rights.
The issue of engagement of the people of the northeast-an amalgam of different tribes, ethnicities and religions with a significant Christian presence, has been steady since independence of India.
The guerrillas have taken advantage of the long and porous borders of jungle that India shares with Bangladesh (4,095 km) and Myanmar (1,600 kilometers) to provide themselves with weapons or harass the troops from safe havens.
The Indian Army is deployed in a number of regions with both permanent and low-intensity fighting against insurgents as allegations of torture are constant.
The region of Assam is the fourth in India by number of detainees died in police custody, with 14 deaths last year, demonstrating that there are "serious" problems with human rights, as Mahanta.
In addition, the effervescence of armed activity has aggravated the economic crisis of these regions, which are linked to the rest of India by the arm known as the "Chicken Neck" and suffer from constant corporate exodus.
"Safety is the most important issue for investors, as well as poor infrastructure of the northeast," the deputy minister recently said Indian Commerce, Jairam Ramesh.
"Any investor wants a safe environment, without having to worry about bombs and stuff like that," he added.
Far from the booming Indian development centers, the Northeast is enclosed in a "logic of conflict" with armed groups facing civilians, the government, the army and to fight each other.
"The definitive political configuration of the region is still pending. Reforms are needed to give more importance to people, "agrees Mahanta.

Relatives asked to investigate 1,000 unmarked graves in Indian Kashmir

New Delhi, April 2, 2008. - Relatives of the disappeared in Kashmir reported the discovery of 1,000 unmarked graves in that territory, that India is disputed with Pakistan, and demanded an international investigation such as that made ​​in mass graves in the Balkans .
The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), which has reported the discovery, told Efe that also has been in contact with Argentine forensics to assist in the exhumation.
"We found 18 cemeteries with unmarked graves. Three of them are more than 200 unmarked graves. So we ask the government to allow an international investigation to know who rely on them, as in Kosovo or Bosnia, "he said by telephone the leader of the APDP, Pervez Imroz.
The association initiated the study of cemeteries in November 2006 and announced its conclusions these days, but have not been echoed in the Indian press (yes in Pakistan) "because there is a blockage of the matter".
Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim region in dispute since independence and partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, is a region with large military presence on both sides of the border and an active independence movement in the Indian side.
Imroz estimated that since 1989, when the situation worsened in the region, between 8,000 and 10,000 people have been arrested by Indian security forces without having known anything about his whereabouts.
The disappearances have been reduced in recent years, but his organization calls for an international inquiry to find out what happened to the disappeared, as said, the Indian government has not taken any action.
Although the activist claims that the troops get rid of the bodies when they are killing a civilian, the Indian Army has always maintained that kills foreign insurgents (referring to raids by Pakistani) or "misguided militants."
"We have nothing to do with the missing. What would kill innocents? We tend to be careful and not even consider enemies to the insurgents. For us, they are simply misguided, "said military spokesman told Efe in Kashmir, Lieutenant Colonel Anil Mathur.
"It was June 10, 1994 and my brother waited for a bus. At that time, the troops of XXX Battalion arrested him and took him away. But later denied that he had in his possession. We visited camps and offices. Disappeared, "he told Efe by telephone Shahi cashmere.
"I keep hoping? Yes ... only to some extent ", deprecated.
Since 1989 at least 65,000 people have died in Kashmir victims of a revolt that has been heavily answered by the Army of India, a country that controls 45 percent of the territory, mostly in the center and south of the historic region.
In Kashmir insurgent groups operate several positions from fundamentalists to maintain independence and are, according to Mathur, the real perpetrators of disappearances, killings and kidnappings of innocent people.
Unbeliever with the military version and himself the victim of an assassination attempt, Imroz said that the graves were dug by unnamed villagers themselves, who then revealed that the bodies were not foreign militants, but Kashmiri.
The APDP has contacted Argentine forensic experts to participate in the task of naming the victims, but they need a permit from the Indian government, he said.
In Indian-controlled area in the region of Jammu and Kashmir is scheduled to take place later this year of legislative elections, which, according to a regional government, "will continue its normal course" despite the massive military deployment.
Whatever the outcome of these elections, Kashmir will remain a maze game between India, Pakistan, which controls the north and west, and China, present in the eastern area of Cashmere "Aksai Chin" key to control Tibet .
Scene of two wars and numerous skirmishes India and Pakistan, the region was described by former U.S. President Bill Clinton (who brokered the last one in 1999) as the place "most dangerous place on Earth" because the three countries involved in the dispute have nuclear weapons.

The Siachen Glacier, the highest battlefield on earth

New Delhi, November 14, 2006. - The dispute between the two rival powers in South Asia, Pakistan and India, including the demilitarization of a glacier in Kashmir to garrison houses the world's highest, decimated in recent years the cold and despeñamientos.
While Pakistan supports the withdrawal of troops as the next step to the ceasefire signed in 2003, India, which controls the glacier official bid to make the boundary line between the two countries in fact.
EFE said an expert from the Center for Policy Research, Professor Brahma Chellaney, control of the glacier is important for India, because "leaving Pakistan without possibility of threatening the region of Ladakh."
The Indian Army also has been very reluctant in recent days to withdraw from Siachen, as stated by the newspaper "Hindustan Times" Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi.
"No army surrender territory just like that. The domain of these positions in Siachen gives our troops a strategic advantage over the Pakistanis, located about 1,000 feet below us, "he said.
Upon layers of snow that reach 15 meters, both countries have maintained for decades sporadic fighting at altitudes of 6,700 meters and temperatures reaching 60 degrees below zero.
Siachen overlooks a triangle in the Kashmir region, disputed between India, Pakistan and China, and is the second largest glacier in the world excluding the poles.
The origin of the conflict goes back to a ceasefire signed in 1949, with which, however, failed to reach agreement on border demarcation on the glacier, whose strategic importance is that it dominates the whole area of Ladakh, in the hands of India.
The Indian-controlled Siachen border also prevents contact between the portions of Kashmir-dominated Pakistan and China.
The glacier is in India's military power since 1984, when the army launched "Operation Meghdoot Op" to counter Pakistan's decision to authorize expeditions to Siachen in order to strengthen their territorial claims.
For the Indians, the operation included heroics as leading to a detachment to climb a wall of ice about 500 meters to take a position at a height Pakistan of 6,700 meters.
The period, known as "Bana Post" in honor of the soldier who first reached the summit, is located at higher altitudes detachments of a dozen Indians on the glacier, that 80 percent "are above 4,900 meters "according to the official said Om Prakash a delegation of journalists who visited the site recently.
Siachen soldiers are in the cold to his greatest enemy, as Colonel Sunil Prabhu said the local newspaper "Hindustan Times" because "is not scientifically possible to survive more than 5,500 feet" and to reach more advanced positions , "soldiers must climb for 28 days."
According to Indian newspapers, about 600 soldiers have died since 1984, mostly due to cold or cast down.

Nathu La traders pay suspicion between India and China

New Delhi, November 1, 2006. - Trading has never been easy between India and China, as evidenced by the meager balance of the first three months after the opening of business of the passage of Nathu-La, Tibet connecting thread with the small eastern Sikkim region of India in the foothills of the Himalayas.
After a closure that lasted 45 years, the authorities opened the border on July 6 for a period of three months before the winter seasonal closure, after tough negotiations, with high expectations and very questionable result.
The flow of investments has been tiny at that time: according to the Government of Sikkim, India has exported goods to China for 15,000 euros, while the value of imports amounted to 19,000.
Very little if one takes into account the forecasts of 36 million euros for 2007 made ​​by the Study Group on Trade Nathu-La before the publication of the terms of the opening.
And a negligible amount to two countries exchanged goods and services worth 14.713 million euros in 2005, 37.5 percent more than last year, mostly by sea.
In Nathu-La, shortly after the opening of the passage in the mountains, the vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Hao Peng, and told reporters that India had applied too many conditions to the exchange of products.
"I hope the Indian authorities take a more egalitarian with respect to trade with China, rather than impose such restrictions," he said.
But in India, things are otherwise, as he told EFE Minister of Commerce and Industry in the region of Sikkim, RB Subba, for whom the opening of Nathu-La is the result of a "border agreement, not free trade. "
"We can export and import products 29 15, and perhaps this is a cause for the amount of trade is so low. But we have sent a request to the Government of India to expand the list, "he said.
The reality is that local merchants are discouraged by the difficulties of trading across the border, with a preset list of permitted and limited to only stay one day.
The result of both obstacle is that, as he told the Indian press secretary of the Merchants' Association of Sikkim, Anil Kumar Gupta, a trader has to get up "every day at three o'clock to sell in China and return the same day ".
And in three months, only 696 Indians and 1,253 small Chinese vendors have guts to get up so early and go out and sell agricultural products, such as those derived from yak, vegetables or fruits, and simple manufactures.
The merchants also face a peculiar condition, which limits individual transactions to a maximum of 435 euros a day, which, according to Gupta, "prevents large-scale development activities."
Subba Minister shares the criticism: "The Government of Sikkim supports free trade across borders, because it is the only way to grow trade between China and India, so I look forward to a review of the agreement."
Until then, the minister prefers to take things on the positive side, and, as recognized by EFE, considers that the agreement is the first "peace symbol and a sign of friendship between two giants."
Because, with its limitations, open the passage was the result of three years of negotiations between two countries that have serious differences in the pattern of their border, both in Sikkim and in Kashmir, to the point of having waged a war.
So for Subba, the small and limited trade flows in Nathu-La is a hopeful sign of mutual acceptance between the two most populous countries.

Suicides in India do not understand caste

New Delhi, October 27, 2006. - Ruined farmers, soldiers, under pressure, tired of living or nursing school marked by competitiveness are some of the faces of suicide in India, a growing problem that no one knows quite how to deal with.
The 1021 farmers have committed suicide in central India since July 2005 are just a sample of a phenomenon that has also become the region of Tamil Nadu in the south, in the place of the planet with the highest rate of teen suicide.
Indian newspapers do not normally have modesty in addressing this issue, taboo in other cultures, and often report suicides among adolescents in the pages of events giving full details.
In Tamil Nadu, for example, the suicide rate among young people is 103 per 100,000 inhabitants, nine times the world average and more than 50 percent of young female deaths are due to this cause.
There and in the neighboring state of Kerala produce half of the 100,000 annual deaths induced car registered in India, which have risen 60 percent in a decade.
Kerala, according to statistics, is the most cultured and literate of all India.
Efe said the sociologist Nandu Ram, "in Tamil Nadu and other southern regions there is a cult leader who leads people to kill themselves, as happened after the death of MG Ramachandran", an actor and prime minister of the region died in 1984 and drew over 100 people to suicide.
Meanwhile, students are prone to self-esteem crisis due to family problems, domestic violence, failed love or mental illness, also affected the Indian education system that is strongly committed to competitiveness in the face of job placement.
"Many children are unable to meet the demands of their parents or school and that it generates complex and makes them think that there is no other way out," said the sociologist.
In the case of farmers, suicide has become a response to a field without a future, especially in Vidarbha, where the debts generated by falling cotton prices and drought are the main reasons cited by local analysts .
Most are illiterate peasants in India, hence more difficult to achieve many bank loans that go to illegal moneylenders, even if it means the payment of interests that can reach 60 percent and are charged sometimes with methods coercive.
The Indian government passed a series of measures to improve the farmers, but suicide rates have increased as support, according to the version of the unions fail.
According to the spokesman for the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti agricultural (VJAS) Kishor Tivari, suicides are common trace: occur between small indebted farmers who face family illness, a daughter of marriageable age and a son unemployed, plus a fall in prices or production.
Now, the organization provides VJAS "gandhigiris", a sort of strikes that follow the principles of "Gandhian" truth, tolerance, nonviolence and unity in order to achieve a "fair price" of about 45 per quintal of cotton.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army, less given to "gandhigiris" that the peasants, has announced the hiring of psychologists against the scourge of suicides among its ranks, estimated at about 500 since 2002 and mainly concentrated in the disputed region of Kashmir .
However, the controversy surrounding the suicide is the same: determine the value of life in a country that has 1,100 million people and has barely begun to develop.
And in India, something as individual as suicide has become a mass problem and knows no caste.

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