The leaders of the Group of 20, an economic cooperation group made up of 19 industrialised nations and the European Union, were urged not to attend meetings in Indian-occupied Kashmir, a recognised disputed territory, on Sunday by the Kashmir Diaspora Coalition (KDC) and its six international affiliate advocacy organisations.
In a joint letter, KDC, Kashmir House Istanbul, Kashmir Civitas, Canada, the World Kashmir Freedom Movement, London, Tehreek-Kashmir, UK and EU, and Kashmir Campaign Global, London hoped that you would conduct a thorough analysis of the situation in light of the disputed status of the territory and urge the Government of India to change the summit’s location or refrain from attending.
On December 1, 2022, India took over for Indonesia as the G-20’s president in 2023. Dr. Ghulam N. Mir, President of the World Kashmir Awareness Forum and Chairman of the Kashmir Diaspora Coalition, Washington, DC, published the letter.
It said that India’s decision to host the G-20 meetings in Srinagar was an attempt to deflect attention away from the fundamental problem of the occupation of a people and to undermine the validity of the Kashmiris’ demand for a plebiscite in accordance with UNSC resolutions.
“As you are aware, the current Indian government is presided over by a fascist, majoritarian, and supremacist group that has been charged with numerous crimes against humanity,” it said.
The lynching of Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and Sikhs as a result of Hindutva fascism has been denounced by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations.
In 2019, the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir’s special autonomous status was unilaterally and illegally abolished by the Indian government.
That revocation is clearly in contravention of many UNSC resolutions as well as international law.
Even worse, India has detained countless journalists and human rights advocates for nothing more than reporting on the aforementioned crimes and daily humiliations that Kashmiris face.
In the letter, the G-20 leaders were urged to refrain from supporting the “false manufacture of normalcy by giving legitimacy to an aggressive state that commits human rights violations, unlawful arrests, and persecution.”
The statement continued, “In fact, the people of the disputed region trust that you would not allow the settler-colonial Indian state to utilise the G-20 Summit to promote its flimsy narrative of normalcy without addressing the worries, wishes, and aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
“Holding a G20 meeting in Kashmir is analogous to a situation in the past where any country could do business with South Africa’s apartheid regime.”
