International Observers

Selective Admission
Journalists may travel freely in both states and have published reports strongly criticizing the government, as have Indian civil rights groups. The government also invited foreign Ambassadors to tour the troubled region. The U.S. State Department's annual country reports on human rights have sharply criticized the government for human rights abuses. Two nongovernmental organizations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also publish annual country surveys with sections on India that detail gross violations.

The government would not allow any UN observers or international NGOs to visit until 1994. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Commission of Jurists both conducted missions to Kashmir. The government subsequently invited the ICRC to help train security forces, but denounced the ICJ mission report for its support of self-determination in Kashmir. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visited both territories in 1995; Jose Ayala Lasso praised the government's new openness but noted serious concern.


Significant Exclusion
The government continues to deny requests from Human Rights Watch and the UN Human Rights Commission Special Rapporteurs on Disappearances and Summary and Arbitrary Executions. The UN special rapporteur on religious intolerance was invited to visit. Amnesty International was allowed to visit prisons in Bombay, but has been refused entry to Punjab and Kashmir.

Human Rights Watch obtained first hand information by sending observers as "tourists," but Amnesty International has not circumvented the government restriction. Both organizations have published extensively detailed accounts of atrocities committed by security forces as well as rebel terrorists. Their reports name names with supporting evidence. Since 1991 HRW has published six reports on Kashmir and four on Punjab. Amnesty International has produced five reports. Human Rights Watch charged that the brutal counterinsurgency campaign made murder, torture, and disappearances official policy.¹² The Government's response to the Amnesty report on disappearances in Kashmir and Punjab shed little light on cited cases. The response blamed Pakistan and militant groups for creating circumstances that "created possibilities of what may be perceived as excesses."¹³

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