SATURDAY, JUNE 01, 2002
Kashmiris want Pak to keep off: Poll
RASHMEE Z AHMED
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
LONDON: More than two-thirds of Kashmiris believe that Pakistan's involvement has damaged their cause, three out of every five believe they ar e politically and economically better off with India, and nearly 90 per cent desperately want cross-border infiltration by foreign militants to stop, according to the latest opinion poll released by MORI International here.
An overwhelming majority of Kashmiris oppose India and Pakistan going to war to solve the Kashmir problem and a similar percentage oppose the bifurcation or trifurcation of the state on ethnic or religious lines.
Lord Eric Avebury, who commissioned the poll, told The Times of India that "the poll showed how much had changed in Jammu and Kashmir, how encouraging things are and how much the people want peace and economic prosperity".
Avebury, a human rights activist who belongs to the 20-member, London-based Friends of Kashmir Group, comprising British politicians and businessmen, said the poll was meant to "allow the Kashmiri people's voice to be heard".
Describing as "legitimate", questions about why Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was not surveyed as well, the British peer said "we had a lack of resources, that is why we restricted ourselves to in and around Srinagar, Jammu and Leh and could not even go to Baramullah, Ananatnag and Sopore".
He said the hubbub over the diplomatic procession of visitors, "the EU's Chris Patten, Britain's Jack Straw and next week Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Armitage had drowned out the poor people of Kashmir".
Avebury said "the poll showed much had changed in Kashmir, but the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should also be allowed to send rapporteurs there".
In an urgent plea for the democratic process, "even if conducted by India and opposed by some," Avebury said the poll revealed the "tendency for most Kashmiris to opt out of the political process, the feeling that a new party must be created to address the concerns of the people and the fact that even the most popular party had only 29 per cent of the people's support".
The survey, carried out in the third week of April, was described by Avebury as "a surprisingly quiet process. No one even knew that interviewers were going around, asking questions, though we had informed the Indian government in advance as a courtesy gesture".
The fieldwork for the survey was done by MORI's Mumbai-based Indian affiliate, FACTS Worldwide. In total, 850 face-to-face interviews were completed with adults over 16 across 55 localities within Jammu and Kashmir, MORI's Louise Binter said.
Eighty per cent of those surveyed wanted Kashmiri Pandits to return to the Valley and most Kashmiris felt they wanted cross-border contact with those on the other side of the Line of Control.
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