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>Workers' Party of New Zealand
>joins forces with other
>Marxist-Leninist parties on Kashmir
>
>The Workers' Party of New Zealand has joined forces with other
>Marxist-Leninist parties waging people's war and supporting it to condemn
>the Kashmiri war and support the Kashmiri's right to self determination.
The
>WPNZ is aligned with the Communist Party of India (ML) [People's War]
over
>the question of Kashmir. The CPI (ML) [PW] is possibly the biggest
people's
>war party in the world today and is leading the struggle in India for New
>Democracy. Below is the text of the joint statement which is signed by
the
>following parties:
>1. Central Committee (Provisional) CPI (M-L) [People's War]
>2. Central Committee Communist Party of the Philippines
>3. Central CommitteeCommunist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist
>4. National Democratic Front of the Philippines
>5. Workers' Party of New Zealand
>
>
>Joint Statement of Marxist-Leninist Parties
>and Organisations on Kashmiri Events
>Oppose Indian Expansionism!
>Support Kashmiri People's Right to Self-Determination !!!
>
>
>While the government of India has sold out the
> country's interests to imperialism and the
> multinationals, it is fighting over a few kilometers of land on which
not a
>blade of grass grows. Successive governments have sold out India's
>industries, its financial sector, its raw materials, its rich mineral and
>energy resources, its agricultural produce .... and now even its genes,
its
>intellectual property rights, its land and forest wealth etc. It has
>recently even turned the lucrative 'export processing zones' into 'free
>trade zones' where India's laws and jurisdiction will be severely
>restricted. It blindly cringes before the IMF, World Bank, WTO,
implementing
>their orders, yet pretends to be the saviour of the country.
>The Indian ruling classes have had a consistent expansionist policy,
>bullying, threatening and seeking to dominate neighbouring countries. The
>right-wing BJP, with its Hindu chauvinist agenda, has pushed this policy
>further, by aggressive sabre-rattling from the very beginning of its
>13-month rule. First there were the nuclear explosions; then, a series of
>high-profile missile launches; a massive increase in the defence budget;
>huge arms purchases; the setting up of a National Security Commission;
>further communalisation of the armed forces and bureaucracy;
restructuring
>the armed forces; and, a high pitched anti-Pakistan, anti-Moslem
hysteria.
>After this big build-up, obviously, it was only a matter of time before
it
>undertook a military adventure. It matters little who fired the first
shot,
>the entire direction of BJP rule has been in confrontationist mode. And
>what better time to provoke it, than the present, when it is facing the
>prospect of defeat in the coming parliamentary elections?
>Of course, with the Nawaz Sharif government of Pakistan also facing
severe
>problems, there too, the war is a boon to divert the Pakistani people's
>attention from the misdeeds of the government. In this war the gainers
are,
>the governments of both countries, the arms dealers, the war-profiteers;
the
>losers are the masses of both countries.
>With the rising tide of protest in India, the government desperately
needed
>a diversion. With the Ayodhya * issue having lost its appeal, ever since
it
>spotted the 'infiltrators', it has precipitated a war-like situation on
the
>borders. Throughout the period it has been difficult to sift fact from
>fiction with the Indian rulers dishing out highly contradictory
statements.
>At the very start, diametrically opposite views were presented by the
15th
>Corps of Kashmir and the Defence Ministry in Delhi. Later, the Indian
>government not only banned Pakistan TV but also all journalists from
>entering the area. Besides, what makes the Indian government's motives
>highly suspect is the full backing it is getting from the imperialists,
with
>high-profile US officials in constant touch with the Indian rulers. At
the
>peak of the crisis, in early June, Henry Kissinger's 'private visit' to
>India has raised eyebrows. This notorious war-monger, who openly
supported
>India's nuclear explosions, had 'private' meetings with the Prime
Minister,
>Home Minister, Foreign Minister, the foreign secretary and the principal
>secretary to the Prime Minister!!
>Besides, the border issue has been blown out of proportion. The fight is
>over high mountains (15,000 to 8,000 feet), basically inaccessible to
>people, snow-bound for over six months of the year, and a region where it
is
>difficult to precisely locate the border. Even according to Indian
defence
>analysts, though the Simla Accord (1972) delineated the Line of Control
>(LOC) on the map, in this region it has never been demarcated on the
ground
>.... due to the inaccessible terrain. In fact, this area has shifted a
>number of times from control by Pakistan to control by India. Up to 1965
it
>was in Pakistan's control. India took possession of it during that war.
But,
>within a couple of years, it was handed back to Pakistan in the Tashkent
>Agreement. Then, in the 1971 war it was again forcibly occupied by Indian
>troops .... with the status quo being accepted in the Simla Agreement.
Yet,
>not one party has said that the Tashkent Agreement was anti-national ...
in
>fact it has been always hailed.
>These border conflicts are nothing but a legacy of British colonialism,
who,
>while departing, left the borders vague in a conscious attempt to enflame
>wars, in order to weaken the protagonists. Unfortunately, rulers on both
>sides, fell prey to British colonial intrigues.
>In the current war scenario there is no difference in standpoint among
the
>parliamentary parties ..... all are resorting to competitive national
>chauvinism. From Right to 'Left' all shriek in the same shrill tone, in a
>bid to make maximum electoral capital out of the situation. But, amidst
the
>sound and fury of the booming guns at the border, and of the hysterical
tone
>of the media, the real war preparations are being made against the Indian
>people. In a meeting called of all state-level police chiefs and home
>secretaries, by the newly-installed Central Home Secretary (a stooge of
the
>fascist RSS), secret plans were hatched for increasing attacks on the
Indian
>people.
>The Indian ruling classes have consistently sought to project the Kashmir
>issue as a creation of Pakistan and 'infiltrators' from across the
border.
>If that is the case why is it afraid to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir - a
>promise given to the UN by Nehru decades ago? Why does it ban independent
>media reports from the area? Why is there such a massive posse of the
army
>and para-military in Kashmir, to merely deal with a handful of
infiltrators?
>Why have 60,000 Kashmiris been butchered, thousands more raped and
tortured
>during the past decade? These questions remain unanswered. The Kashmiri
>people have for decades been struggling for their right to
>self-determination, for their right to exist as a sovereign, independent
>Republic. Their just struggle is being crushed under the iron heels of
the
>Indian rulers. Yet, their struggle continues.
>'Operation Vijay' launched by the Indian ruling classes in Kargil [a
region
>of Kashmir] on the plea of pushing out Pakistan 'intruders' is in fact a
>conspiracy to suppress the national liberation struggle of the Kashmiri
>people; a conspiracy to whip up national chauvinism among the Indian
people
>and divert them from the deep internal economic and political crises; a
>conspiracy to further militarise and fascise the state structure and to
>equip it with the most draconian powers to suppress all democratic
dissent
>in the country. We, as the advanced detachment of the people in our
>respective countries, appeal to the people of all countries to lodge
their
>protest against these conspiracies of the Indian ruling classes.
>We demand :
>· Stop the war on the border, resolve the dispute through negotiations!
>· Oppose Indian Government's expansionist policies in South Asia!
>· Stop all atrocities on the Kashmiri people and withdraw the army and
>para-military forces from Kashmir!
>· Support the Right to Self-determination of the Kashmiri people!
>· Kargil is neither India's nor Pakistan's!
>· Kargil belongs to the Kashmiris!!
>