“Just received word that my friend’s 9-year-old niece in Srinagar had to be hospitalised for ANXIETY. She was crying, sweating and in a constant panic. If a 9-year-old is experiencing panic attacks, you know something is terribly wrong.”
–journalist Azad Essa @azadessa on Twitter
It makes sense that Eva Bartlett is now in the Crimea on Putin’s behalf attempting to find evidence that there is no opposition to Russia’s 2014 occupation & annexation of the Crimea & if there is opposition that it is ‘jihadi terrorists’. That’s her schtick as a fascist & professional propagandist for the Assad dictatorship & Putin.
But Bartlett has an ally now in Trump who gave a press conference at the G7 in France lobbying for Russia to be invited back into the G7 after it was expelled for the annexation of the Crimea. He ignored the illegal occupation & annexation & in a deranged non sequitur blamed the expulsion on Obama who was “outsmarted” & “embarrassed” by the annexation & on Obama’s warning to Syria not to use chemical weapons against civilians.
Now, as one Kashmiri has asked, ‘if Russia was expelled from G7 for annexing Crimea, how on earth did Modi get invited to the G7 for doing the exact same thing to Kashmir’? When Trump has the only consistent policy on illegal occupation & annexation at the G7–seeing it as real estate deals rather than human rights & war crimes–isn’t to time to recognize that body for what it is? It’s an economic & political association of seven countries–Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, & US, whose purpose is to deal with the antagonisms & crises of capitalism, not with human rights.
After meeting with Modi at the G7 meeting going on in France, Trump the amoral halfwit who is collaborating with Israel to accelerate ethnic cleansing & genocide against Palestinians, said, “We spoke last night about Kashmir. Prime Minister [Modi] really feels he has it under control. They speak with Pakistan & I’m sure that they will be able to do something that will be very good.” Does anyone still look to the US to ‘mediate’ Kashmiri self-determination?
Modi responded, “All issues between India & Pakistan are bilateral in nature, that is why we don’t bother any other country regarding them….India & Pakistan were together before 1947 & I’m confident that we can discuss our problems & solve them together.” Where are the Kashmiris in that equation? Mute spectators to their own fate?
#StandWithKashmir
(Photo from Reuters)
Ilhan Omar’s statement on Kashmir: not the strongest statement since she should have called for the withdrawal of troops rather than “deescalation” but it’s the start of her education on the struggle for Kashmiri self-determination.
This video is in Urdu but even those who don’t speak the language will be struck by the images from the Soura neighborhood in Srinagar which has made itself a no-go zone for Indian troops with barricades & ditches & which calls itself “Kashmir’s Gaza.”
صورہ: خوفناک خاموشی میں احتجاج کا مرکز
بھارت کے زیرانتظام کشمیر میں اگست کے آغاز سے سکیورٹی لاک ڈاؤن اور بھاری تعداد میں فوجیوں کی تعیناتی کے باوجود سرینگر کا نواحی علاقہ صورہ مظاہروں کا نیا مرکز بن کر سامنے آیا ہے۔
Posted by BBC URDU on Tuesday, August 27, 2019
A troubling report from a Kashmiri just returned from spending eight days there:
“After spending eight days in different parts of Kashmir, I managed to reach back Delhi alive today. Everyone back home knows that the Governor and his administration are economical with the truth. They are avoiding facts and spreading lies. They are untruthful thugs. Please do not trust them. The situation is in a perilous and frightening state. According to locals thousands of people, including children, have been arrested and dozens injured. Life saving drugs are fast disappearing from the medical stores and essential food items are not available. Everyone I met is emotionally broken and psychologically distressed. God save Kashmir.”
–Sheikh Fayaz Ahmad
India is refusing to issue death certificates for those they are killing in Kashmir so they can continue to claim there are no casualties. Are there words in any language strong enough to denounce this savagery & deceit?
“Leaving aside Kashmir’s centuries-old struggle against colonial invaders and occupiers, this much should be evident to those who have known the news since 1947: Kashmiris have been fighting the Indian State all these years because of the consequences of being a Muslim-majority people living under the rule of a Hindu-fascist system that calls itself a constitutional democracy. India could at least try to be as civilised towards Kashmiris as British Raj was towards Indians, but it is incapable of that level of human decency because of the Brahminism in its soul.
“PS: I must accept British Raj as a role model of being civilised, for otherwise I wouldn’t have printable words to describe the occupier of Kashmir. This allows me to get away by just saying that India lacks the British level of decency. If I were to call out British Raj for the brutish system it was, what would I call Indian rule in Kashmir? From the known facts, it is easy to say there was greater space for democratic rights under the British Raj than in Kashmir even during Nehru’s time. And today this is not even a question — BJP rule is definitely worse than British rule. There was also greater support for Indians among British people than for Kashmiris among Indian people. The Britishers at least acknowledged that they were ruling an empire; most Indians, including even the majority of those fighting against the Indian State for democratic rights, insist that the Republic of India, including Kashmir and the Northeast, is their nation, not a colonising empire. #StandWithKashmir #EndTheOccupation”
–Indian activist Satyadeep Satya
An update on the Jenab Sahib Soura neighborhood in Srinagar which residents have made a ‘no-go zone’ for Indian troops. An extraordinary story of popular resistance to colonial occupation.
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/day-23-india-s-kashmir-siege-we-want-our-sleep-back-29235?
We should take a moment to grieve the children of Idlib sustaining now months of Syrian & Russian carpet bombing, including with barrel bombs & incendiary weapons.
The Assadist & Stalinist cult that has replaced the antiwar movement claims there are no civilians living in Idlib, only terrorists, when photographic documentation of the slaughter of children is irrefutable. They’re dividing their time now between denouncing the Syrian Arab Spring as terrorists & denouncing the Hong Kong protesters as violent proxies for US aggression against China. May they rot in hell as we determine to rebuild the antiwar movement rooted in principles & not in hatred for the oppressed standing up against dictators & tyranny.
(Sketch by artist Marc Nelson from an eyewitness photo in a protest against the bombing of Idlib)