Kashmir Secessionists Cite Kosovo Precedent
If Kosovo Can, Why Not Kashmir?
According to Tanjug, protesters originating from India's Kashmir region demonstrated outside the headquarters of the European Commission (EC) and the European Union (EU) Council in Brussels on Tuesday, demanding that the Kosovo precedent be applied on Kashmir and that this region be given the right to unilateral secession from India.
The protesters chanted slogans stating that if Kosovo can, why not Kashmir as well.
Ali Raza Syed, president of the Brussels-based Kashmir Center which organized the protest, said they had come to remind officials of European institutions and the international community that Kashmir, like Kosovo, has the right to self-determination. They have been fighting for independence from India for sixty years, but to no avail, he said. Their struggle evidently is of no interest to the media, but they deal with the subject of Kosovo, Syed said, asking why Kashmir cannot be independent like Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohia was allowed to secede, despite the opposition of the Serbian state representatives.
India is opposed to the amputation of southern Serbian province, among other things, because its representatives are aware that legitimizing such unilateral move aimed at imposed dismemberment of UN member states sets a precedent for the case of Kashmir.
Nevertheless, the European Union is trying to convince the global public opinion that the case of Serbian Kosovo province is "unique", in an effort to justify its unilateral moves — moves that bypass the UN Security Council and violate the UN Charter, Helsinki Final Act and scores of other international laws and agreements.
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Cartoon by Petar Pismestrovic (Austria)