The South African Kashmiri Action Group held a mass protest action outside United Nation Offices in Pretoria to protest the lack of action to resolve the dispute of Kashmir. The 27th October each year marks the anniversary of India’s occupation of Kashmir, commonly referred to as Kashmir’s Black Day. Since 1947, over 100 000 people have been killed by Indian armed forces to suppressed the uprising by Kashmiris for their right of self-determination.

“Kashmir never belonged to India. India does not deserve Kashmir. Neither does it belong to Pakistan. Kashmir belongs to the Kashmiris,” said the Media Review Network’s Ibrahim Vawda.

“The most unimaginable genocide has been committed on the people of Kashmir. Entire generations of its sons have been mowed down by an army whose presence is as large as it is despised. Both, Hindus and Muslims have lived in Jammu and Kashmir for centuries and in harmony. Sadly, both are victims of the historic blundering of the Indian Government’s Kashmir Policy.”

Palestinians and Kashmiris share a struggle for liberation and the right to self-determination against occupying forces backed by the might of the American military-industrial complex. In one of the biggest parallels between their mutual struggles against colonialism, Palestinians have spent the last 68 years resisting the displacement caused by the British-mandated creation of Israel. Like Palestinians, Kashmiris are treated as second-class citizens in their own land, which has become one of the most intensely militarized borders in the world. Both are victims of British and Zionist Colonial treachery.

“When members of either group fight back against apartheid-style policies, whether through nonviolent protest or in direct retaliation to state violence, they tend to be deemed “terrorists” by mainstream western media. Israel is a key ally in the Middle East, helping further the U.S. agenda of controlling the Middle East’s fossil fuels and even guiding foreign policy in the region,” said Vawda.

“The United States, also seeks to deepen its ties with India as a way of putting pressure on Russia and China. Because the United States depends on maintaining a strategic alliance with both Israel and India, both nations are free to oppress Palestinians or Kashmiris with absolute impunity.”

Neither Kashmir nor Palestine is disputed territory. Both are occupied and in violation of international law.

“The Media Review Network calls on the International Community and South African Government in particular to seriously consider the human rights violations and war crimes committed by these two countries and to consider what steps could be taken to end this form of state terrorism.” VOC