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India announces major troop drawdown in Kashmir

Cambodia to send 20 Uighurs back to China: US rights group
Washington (AFP) Dec 18, 2009 - Cambodia is sending 20 Chinese Muslims who fled there after July unrest in Xinjiang back to China where they face possible persecution, a US-based Uighur rights organization said Friday. The group has been taken to the Phnom Penh airport and is about to be put on a plane to Shanghai, said Henryk Szadziewski of the Uighur Human Rights Project in Washington. "There is a plane ready to take them away," he said, adding that his organization had received the information from local sources in Cambodia. US State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters, "we are deeply disturbed by reports the Cambodian government might forcibly return this group of Uighurs without the benefit of a credible refugee status determination process. "We strongly urge the Cambodian government to honor its commitment under international law," he added. The group arrived at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office after fleeing deadly unrest in northwest China's Xinjiang region and their presence in Phnom Penh was first made public two weeks ago.

The clashes between Xinjiang's Muslim Uighur community and China's majority Han ethnic group left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, according to an official toll. "This is an outrageous violation of international law, China's use of the boot of repression only guarantees deeper resentment and anger among Uighur Muslims and further tarnishes China's global image," said Leonard Leo, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a non-partisan advisory board to the US government. The Uighurs arrived at the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Phnom Penh after fleeing deadly unrest in northwest China's Xinjiang region and their presence in Phnom Penh was first made public two weeks ago. Amnesty International urged Cambodia earlier this week not to deport the group, which is seeking UN refugee status in Cambodia, saying they risked torture at home in China. The right group's appeal came after China warned Tuesday that UN refugee programs "should not be a haven for criminals" and said the Uighurs, earlier said to number 22 including three children, were involved in criminal activity.
by Staff Writers
 New Delhi (AFP) Dec 18, 2009
 The Indian army said Friday it had pulled 30,000 troops out of Kashmir, one of the biggest military drawdowns in a decade and reflecting a sharp fall in violence in the disputed region.

"We have moved out two divisions of infantry formations who were on internal security duties... and approximately the number of soldiers pulled out is 30,000 men," spokesman Colonel Om Singh said in New Delhi.

The withdrawal was one of the biggest since 1999, when nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fought a six-week undeclared war in the Himalayan peaks in which some 1,000 soldiers on both sides died.

A 20-year-old insurgency against Indian rule in the Muslim-majority region has claimed more than 47,000 lives.

Singh said the number of soldiers deployed along the Line of Control -- the de facto border that divides the territory into India- and Pakistan-administered Kashmir -- had not been reduced.

"They cannot be moved from there because that is a permanent deployment," he said, declining to disclose the number of troops along the 746-kilometre (463-mile) control line.

Experts and independent sources estimate the number of Indian troops along the Line of Control at around 120,000. The total number of Indian forces in Kashmir is unknown but it is believed to be in the hundreds of thousands.

Violence has declined since India and Pakistan started a peace process in 2004 and the New Delhi government has said it wants to hand over day-to-day security operations to police.

The dispute dates from the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and the Kashmiri region is split between the two countries along the UN-monitored Line of Control.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony told reporters on the sidelines of a human rights seminar in Delhi that more troops could be withdrawn if the state government demanded.

He warned, however, that the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives the military sweeping powers to detain people without an arrest warrant, will remain in force across the region.

"Without special powers, they (military) will not be able to act effectively," Antony said, but added he was ready for a "detailed discussion for some modifications here and there" in the law.

Antony said the "onus" was on the armed forces to stop its misuse.

"We will not hesitate in taking stern action against the guilty, in case of any misuse. We must adopt the policy of 'zero tolerance' in letter and spirit towards any instance of human rights violation," he added.

Kashmir separatist leaders said there was no visible sign of the troop withdrawal.

"We have no reason to believe troops are leaving... there is no transparency at all," Javed Mir, a former militant commander, said in Srinagar.

Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chief of the moderate faction of an umbrella forum of separatist groups, agreed.

"When were the troops withdrawn? Who saw them leaving Kashmir? This is merely an announcement," Mirwaiz told devotees during Friday prayers in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's summer capital.

New Delhi has been promising since June to reduce the military presence as part of a bid to reduce tensions in the region.

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