Rape during the Kashmir conflict: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Article Images

Line 1:

~~Rape~~Since ~~has~~the ~~been~~onset ~~used~~of asthe ~~a weapon of war~~[[Insurgency in ~~India ([[~~Jammu and Kashmir~~]]) and~~|insurgency in ~~Pakistan~~Indian ~~([[Azad~~administered ~~Kashmir]]~~Jammu and ~~[[Gilgit-Baltistan~~Kashmir]]~~).<ref>{{cite~~, ~~book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_IwDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT139&dq=Pakistani+militants|title=Defeat~~rape ishas anbeen ~~Orphan:~~used ~~How~~as ~~Pakistan~~a ~~Lost~~weapon ~~the~~of ~~Great~~war South Asian War|first=Myra|last=MacDonald|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2017}}</ref><ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4725157.stm</ref><ref>https://www.dawn.com/news/149871</ref> In India,by Indian security forces; comprising the [[Indian Army|Indian Army,]]<ref>Chinkin, Christine. "Rape and sexual abuse of women in international law." ''[[European Journal of International Law]]'' 5.3 (1994): 327. <nowiki>''</nowiki>Numerous incidents of women raped in other international and internal armed conflicts can be cited to illustrate this point...women in Kashmir who have suffered rape and death under the administration of the Indian army.<nowiki>''</nowiki></ref> [[Central Reserve Police Force]] (CRPF) and [[Border Security Force|Border Security personnel]], against the Kashmiri population.<ref name=":4">Inger Skjelsbæk (2001) [[doi:10.1080/13533310108413896|Sexual violence in times of war: A new challenge for peace operations?]], International Peacekeeping, 8:2, 75-76.</ref><ref name="Frederick2001">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gU-6CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT101|title=Rape: Weapon of Terror|publisher=World Scientific|year=2001|isbn=978-981-4350-95-2|pages=101–|author=Sharon Frederick}}</ref><ref>[https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/INDIA935.PDF "RAPE IN KASHMIR: A Crime of War"] (PDF). ''Asia Watch & Physicians for Human Rights A Division of Human Rights Watch''. '''5''' (9): 6.</ref> The frequent rape of Kashmiri Muslim women by Indian state security forces routinely goes unpunished.<ref name="BakshHarcourt2015">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SupcBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA683|title=The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2015|isbn=978-0-19-994349-4|pages=683–|author1=Rawwida Baksh|author2=Wendy Harcourt}}</ref> Many women have become victims of rape and sexual assault in the conflict. Separatist militants have also committed rape to some extent, although not comparable in scale with that by the Indian state forces.<ref>Kazi, Seema. [http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t343/e0165?_hi=0&_pos=1 ''Gender and Militarization in Kashmir'']. ''Oxford Islamic Studies Online''. Oxford University Press. <q>Sordid and gruesome as the militant record of violence against Kashmiri women and civilians is, it does not compare with the scale and depth of abuse by Indian State forces for which justice has yet to be done.</q></ref><ref name=":5" /><ref name="Kenney2013" />

== Background ==

In the aftermath of the rigged [[Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election, 1987|1987 elections]] in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, where Islamic parties were prevented from winning several seats in the State Assembly,<ref>Amin, Tahir; Schofield, Victoria. [http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0433?_hi=3&_pos=48 Kashmir]. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford University Press. <nowiki>''The current phase of resistance against Indian rule began in 1987 when an alliance of several Islamic parties, the Muslim United Front (MUF), was expected to win several important seats in the state assembly elections but failed to win more than four seats, allegedly because of massive rigging. These elections proved the catalyst for a new phase of armed struggle against Indian rule. ''</nowiki></ref> a popular anti-Indian separatist movement gained momentum in the [[Kashmir Valley]], a territory disputed between India and Pakistan since 1947. To counter the insurgency, India militarised the Valley, deploying a huge amount of troops in the region. Opponents of Indian military occupation in the valley maintain that 600,000 troops are stationed throughout the state, which makes the region posses the highest ratio of troops to civilian population density in the world.<ref>[https://books.google.co.in/books?id=rkTetMfI6QkC Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict 2003], p. 168.</ref> Since January 1990, India allowed its forces to commit a number of human rights violations against civilians, including mass rape.<ref name="DwivediRajan20162" />

In October 1947, armed tribesmen from Pakistan with the regular Pakistani forces invaded Kashmir and committed atrocities such as raping and looting the locals.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=V9zTOD0K6KYC&pg=PT266&dq=pakistani+tribesmen+pakistani+troops+looting+along+the+way&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwifz7emj7vTAhWFuo8KHcR5CRoQ6AEIJDAA#v=onepage&q=pakistani%20tribesmen%20pakistani%20troops%20looting%20along%20the%20way&f=false India Divided Religion 'Then' (1947) (East-West)], PublishAmerica, by Mohin Jadarro Harappa</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=JXwhX8JZ-68C&pg=PR7&dq=pakistani+tribesmen+invaded+kashmir+1947 Kashmir: The Case for Freedom], Verso Books, by Arundhati Roy, Pankaj Mishra, Hilal Bhatt, Angana P. Chatterji, Tariq Ali</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=oilxiI9uso8C&pg=PP21&dq= Travels in Kashmir] Hachette UK</ref>

To counter the insurgency in the region, India militarised the Valley, deploying a huge amount of troops in the region. Opponents of Indian military occupation in the valley maintain that 600,000 troops are stationed throughout the state, which makes the region posses the highest ratio of troops to civilian population density in the world.<ref>[https://books.google.co.in/books?id=rkTetMfI6QkC Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict 2003], p. 168.</ref> Since January 1990, India allowed its forces to commit a number of human rights violations against civilians, including mass rape.<ref name="DwivediRajan20162" />

== Rape as a weapon of war ==

According to a report by [[Human Rights Watch]] in 1993, the security forces use rape as a method of retaliation against Kashmiri civilians during reprisal attacks after militant ambushes.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>Littlewood, Roland. “Military Rape.” ''[[Anthropology Today]]'', vol. 13, no. 2, 1997, pp. 7–16.</ref> Most rape cases, according to the same report, have occurred during cordon-and-search operations.<ref name=":1">[https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/INDIA935.PDF "Rape in Kashmir: A Crime of War"] (PDF). ''Asia Watch & Physicians for Human Rights A Division of Human Rights Watch''. '''5''' (9): 1.</ref> Scholar [[Inger Skjelsbæk|Inger Skhjelsbaek]] states that the pattern of rape in Kashmir is that soldiers enter the homes of civilians, kill or evict the men and then rape the women present.<ref name=":4" /> Scholar Shubh Mathur calls rape an essential element of the Indian military strategy in Kashmir.<ref name="Mathur20162" />

According to scholar Seema Kazi, the motive of rape in Kashmir is no different to the rapes which were committed in Rwanda and the Balkans.<ref>Kazi, Seema. [http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t343/e0165?_hi=3&_pos=8 ''Kashmir, Gender and Militarization in'']. Oxford University Press. <q>In this respect the motive and intent of rape in Kashmir was no different from the Balkans and Rwanda, where rape functioned as a cultural weapon of war against women and against the community at large (Kesic, 2000)…Rape and sexual abuse is an integral part of the Indian counteroffensive in Kashmir</q></ref> According to Kazi, rape in Kashmir is a cultural weapon of war and the rape of [[Kashmiris|Kashmiri]] women by Indian security forces, in the context of a predominantly Hindu state repressing a Muslim minority population, functions as a tool of subordinating Kashmiri men and the Kashmiri community at large.<ref>Kazi, Seema. "[http://www.sociolegalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Rape-Impunity-and-Justice-in-Kashmir.pdf Rape, Impunity and Justice in Kashmir.]" ''Socio-Legal Rev.'' 10 (2014): 27.</ref> Kazi also states that rape is used to demoralize the Kashmiri resistance and that there have been documented cases of soldiers confessing that they were ordered to rape women.<ref name=":2">Kazi, Seema. "[http://www.sociolegalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Rape-Impunity-and-Justice-in-Kashmir.pdf Rape, Impunity and Justice in Kashmir]." ''Socio-Legal Rev.'' 10 (2014): 29.</ref><ref name="MatosWard2012">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9xB4JKOfvYC&pg=PA229|title=Gender, Power, and Military Occupations: Asia Pacific and the Middle East since 1945|first=|date=27 April 2012|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=|isbn=978-1-136-33934-9|location=|pages=229–|quote=These record a pattern of rape by soldiers who often claim to be following orders.|author1=Christine De Matos|author2=Rowena Ward}}</ref>▼

In 2005, a BBC report about the family of a Kashmiri women, who had been raped by three Pakistani soldiers.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Prospect of Nuclear Jihad in South Asia: Pakistan's Army, Extra-judicial Killings, and the Forceful Disappearance of Pashtuns and Balochs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yfwdCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA168&dq=|page=168|publisher=Algora Publishing}}</ref>

▲According to Seema Kazi, the motive of rape in Kashmir is no different to the rapes which were committed in Rwanda and the Balkans.<ref>Kazi, Seema. [http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t343/e0165?_hi=3&_pos=8 ''Kashmir, Gender and Militarization in'']. Oxford University Press. <q>In this respect the motive and intent of rape in Kashmir was no different from the Balkans and Rwanda, where rape functioned as a cultural weapon of war against women and against the community at large (Kesic, 2000)…Rape and sexual abuse is an integral part of the Indian counteroffensive in Kashmir</q></ref> According to Kazi, rape in Kashmir is a cultural weapon of war and the rape of [[Kashmiris|Kashmiri]] women by Indian security forces, in the context of a predominantly Hindu state repressing a Muslim minority population, functions as a tool of subordinating Kashmiri men and the Kashmiri community at large.<ref>Kazi, Seema. "[http://www.sociolegalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Rape-Impunity-and-Justice-in-Kashmir.pdf Rape, Impunity and Justice in Kashmir.]" ''Socio-Legal Rev.'' 10 (2014): 27.</ref> Kazi also states that rape is used to demoralize the Kashmiri resistance and that there have been documented cases of soldiers confessing that they were ordered to rape women.<ref name=":2">Kazi, Seema. "[http://www.sociolegalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Rape-Impunity-and-Justice-in-Kashmir.pdf Rape, Impunity and Justice in Kashmir]." ''Socio-Legal Rev.'' 10 (2014): 29.</ref><ref name="MatosWard2012">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9xB4JKOfvYC&pg=PA229|title=Gender, Power, and Military Occupations: Asia Pacific and the Middle East since 1945|first=|date=27 April 2012|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=|isbn=978-1-136-33934-9|location=|pages=229–|quote=These record a pattern of rape by soldiers who often claim to be following orders.|author1=Christine De Matos|author2=Rowena Ward}}</ref>

Professor William Baker stated at the 52nd United Nations Commission on Human Rights that rape in Kashmir was not the result of a few undisciplined soldiers but an active strategy of the security forces to humiliate and intimidate the Kashmiri population.<ref name=":6">Ranjan, Amit. "[http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0049085715589471 A Gender Critique of AFSPA: Security for Whom?]." ''Social Change'' 45.3 (2015): 447.</ref> He cited as evidence his interviews with several rape victims who were raped by soldiers in front of their families, including husbands and children.<ref>Kazi, Seema (2014). [http://www.sociolegalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Rape-Impunity-and-Justice-in-Kashmir.pdf "Rape, Impunity And Justice In Kashmir"] (PDF). ''Socio-Legal Review''. '''10''': 28.</ref> An [[Amnesty International]] report in 1992 stated that rape in Kashmir was a systematic attempt to humiliate the local population during counter-insurgency operations.<ref name="GangulyGanguly2004">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rz4bJ3ejsisC&pg=PA47|title=The Kashmir Question: Retrospect and Prospect|date=1 March 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-75658-1|pages=47–|author1=Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations Sumit Ganguly|author2=Sumit Ganguly}}</ref>

Line 66 ⟶ 60:

According to Kazi, the Indian media has <nowiki>''displayed unseemly haste in exonerating security forces''</nowiki> from rape allegations.<ref>Kazi, Seema. "[http://www.sociolegalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Rape-Impunity-and-Justice-in-Kashmir.pdf Rape, Impunity and Justice in Kashmir]." ''Socio-Legal Rev.'' 10 (2014): 38-39.</ref> In 2016, JNU student union president [[Kanhaiya Kumar]] became the centre of controversy after speaking out on the rape of women in Kashmir by Indian security forces. The [[Bharatiya Janata Party|BJP]] youth wing filed a complaint against him, calling him 'anti-national'.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/in-kashmir-women-are-raped-by-security-personnel-says-kanhaiya/|title=In Kashmir, women are raped by security personnel: Kanhaiya Kumar|date=2016-03-09|work=The Indian Express|access-date=2017-04-19|language=en-US}}</ref>

Human Rights Watch stated in its 1993 report that the common use of rape by Indian security forces in the conflict drew little international condemnation, despite reports in the international press and by Indian human rights groups.<ref>[https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/INDIA935.PDF "Rape in Kashmir: A Crime of War"] (PDF). ''Asia Watch & Physicians for Human Rights A Division of Human Rights Watch''. '''5''' (9): 2.</ref> According to scholar Amit Ranjan, the Indian state has always sided with the perpetrators and not the rape victims<ref>Ranjan, Amit. "A [http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0049085715589471 Gender Critique of AFSPA: Security for Whom?]." ''Social Change'' 45.3 (2015): 446.</ref> and Indian society is generally not disturbed by rapes in Kashmir due to Kashmiri Muslims being considered the 'other'.<ref>Ranjan, Amit. "[http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0049085715589471 A Gender Critique of AFSPA: Security for Whom?]." ''Social Change'' 45.3 (2015): 450. <nowiki>''</nowiki>Against such a background, it is difficult to garner solidarity over the issue of rapes in India....The feeling of otherness is strong in Indian society, which is socially, culturally and religiously based on the practice of discrimination against the outsider....Muslims, especially from Kashmir, in the popular imagination, are seen as the ‘other’, so if anything untoward happens in these areas, it does not disturb the popular definition of ‘security’.<nowiki>''</nowiki></ref> At the same time, Ranjan says that the Kashmir Valley's disputed status between India and Pakistan has given it the advantage of some international attention.<ref name=":6" /> Former Pakistani Prime Minister, [[Benazir Bhutto]], in her address to the [[Fourth World Conference on Women|Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995]], called the use of rape as a weapon of war in Jammu and Kashmir <nowiki>''reprehensible'' and ''depraved''</nowiki>.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.un.org/esa/gopher-data/conf/fwcw/conf/gov/950904202603.txt|title=95-09-04: Statement by Pakistan, HE Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}</ref>

According to journalist Syed Junaid Hashmi, both separatists and mainstream political parties in Kashmir have ignored the rape victims.<ref name=":0" /> Journalists [[Eric Margolis]] and Isaac Zolton have reported on refugee women in Azad Kashmir who were raped by Indian soldiers before they fled Indian administered Kashmir.<ref name="Margolis2004">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FQGUAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80|title=War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet|date=23 November 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-95559-5|pages=80–|author=Eric Margolis}}</ref><ref>Istvan, Zoltan (13 March 2003). [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/0313_030313_tvpakirefugees_2.html "Refugee Crisis Worsening In Western Kashmir"]. ''National Geographic''. Retrieved 15 January 2017.</ref>