Kashmir conflict is more than land clash

By HAL D. COFFEY
Collegian Staff Writer

Before six western tourists were taken hostage wandering into a mountainous region between India and Pakistan, most Americans could only identify Kashmir as either a type of sweater or a '70s rock song.

Instead, more and more stories are emanating from the land long held by India, but disputed by Muslim residents as well as the nation of Pakistan. And the stories tell of a conflict that runs much deeper than just a simple territorial dispute.

Kashmir is made up of three sections each with its own distinct culture. The northwestern quadrant, Azad (free) Kashmir, is already part of Pakistan and made up of mostly Muslims. The northeastern corner is comprised of Tibetan monks. The third region, and section mostly involved in the dispute, is Jammu (India) Kashmir, located in the South and bordering India.

The regions were set up when the United Nations sponsored cease-fire line was set up between India and Pakistan following their 1965 war. It was set up as a temporary borderline.

Between the time when fighting flared up in 1993 and when two western hostages were recently killed, over 400 Pakistanis have been killed, but no one reads much about that, said Robert LaPorte professor of public administration and political science.

"If you want to get someone's attention, kill Americans," LaPorte said.

And the Muslim insurgents who have been battling Indian troops through numerous border skirmishes now have the world's attention. Although the group holding the western hostages, the Alfaran, are not Kashmiri, they do share one central belief, said Stanley Kochanek, professor of political science -- the Muslim faith.

The Alfaran are carry-overs from the war in Afghanistan. Even though they do want Kashmir to join fellow Muslim Pakistanis, many Muslims in Kashmir are opposed to their taking of hostages, Kochanek said.

One minor benefit for India during this hostage situation has been a shift in the focus of human rights violations. Since the early 1980s when Muslim insurgents began uprising in Kashmir, groups such as Amnesty International have noted human rights abuses by the Indian government while trying to suppress the Muslim insurgency, Kochanek said.

Now pressure and focus moves from India to the militants' human rights abuses. Though India does not like the hostage taking, it has shifted attention away from their violations, Kochanek said.

Beyond the issue of the hostages is the fact that both nations involved in the dispute over Jammu Kashmir hold nuclear weaponry capabilities. Also neither country has signed the nuclear proliferation treaty, nor do they seem intent on signing, LaPorte said.

"Pakistan said it is waiting for India to sign, but India has said it has no plans to," LaPorte said.

The original intent of nuclear weapons also shows the differing tactics for such capabilities. India built nuclear weapons to fend off the Chinese, not Pakistan. Then, Pakistan built their weapons in response to India's initiation of stockpiling, Kochanek said.

However, Kochanek said both sides realize war would be a disastrous result for resolving the conflict.

Krishna Kishore, a faculty member in the College of Communications and a resident of India, agrees that nuclear war is very unlikely between Pakistan and India.

"Both sides are extremely cautious of escalating this beyond the diplomatic and border fronts," Kishore said. "It is basically a cold war."

Kishore, who is from Kerala in the southern tip of India, added that if war was to break out, it would have happened by now, but with changes to the geopolitical realm, nobody knows who will support them.

Another deterrent for war is that India is quite satisfied with the status quo and would rather continue its present position regarding Kashmir -- keeping the region from being independent or part of Pakistan. Therefore, the Pakistanis would have to initiate war, but that may prove to be unwise, Kochanek said. Even though Pakistan has one of the highest rates of population growth in the world, it is still outnumbered by a 4 to 1 ratio in military troops. The population difference is even greater than that.

Another worry for Pakistan is that the head of the five rivers which supply water to their entire country's irrigation and fresh-water supply originate at the Indus river in the Kashmir region. Pakistan fears this will be cut off by the Indians, thereby drying up the entire nation, LaPorte said.

Apart from the physical and geographical differences, India and Pakistan differ on their philosophy of a national ideal, Kochanek said.

"This is not just a question of give-and-take," he said.

India's national belief is "a symbol of a secular society" of religious and cultural harmony, Kochanek said. Pakistan stands on its feeling of "Muslim unity," he said.