Kashmir conflictThe Kashmir conflict is a territorial dispute between India and P akistan over the Kashmir region, thenorthwesternmost

region of South Asia.India claims the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir and as of 2010, administers approxi mately 43% ofthe region, including most of Jammu, theKashmir Valley, Ladakh, and the Siachen Glacier. Indiasclaim is contested by Pakistan, which controls appro ximately 37% of Kashmir, namelyAzadKashmir and the northern areas of Gilgit and Baltistan. China controls 20% of Kashmir,including Aksai Chin, which it occupied following the brief Sino-Indian War of 1962, and the Trans-Karakoram Tract (als o known as the Shaksam Valley), which was ceded by Pakistan in 1963. 3. India has officially stated that it believes that Kashmir is an integral part of India, though the PrimeMinister of India, Manmohan Singh, stated after the20 10 Kashmir Unrest that his government is willing togrant autonomy within the pur view of Indian constitution to Kashmir if there is consensus on thisissue. Pakis tan says that Kashmir is a disputed territory whose final status must be determi ned bythe people of Kashmir. China states that Aksai Chin is a part of China and does not recognize theaddition of Aksai Chin to the Kashmir region. Certain Kas hmiri independence groups believe thatKashmir should be independent of both Indi a and Pakistan.Geography Bordered by Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and China Con tains about 85,000 square miles of land Mountainous, sparsely populated region V aried climate due to elevation Most populated area is the Vale of Kashmir, on th e Indian side Currently, Kashmir is divided into three regions: one controlled b y India, one controlled by Pakistan, and a small area controlled by ChinaDemogra phicsAccording to a 2001 census, Kashmir has about 10 million residents 7.5 mill ion in Indian-controlled territory 2.5 million in Pakistani-controlled territory Three-quarters of the population are Muslim, and the remaining one-quarter is pr edominantly HinduEarly history:The name "Kashmir" means "desiccated land. In the Rajatarangini, a history of Kashmir writtenby Kalhana in the mid-12th century, it is stated that the valley of Kashmir was formerly a lake. Accordingto Hindu m ythology, the lake was drained by the great rishi or sage, Kashyapa, son of Mari chi, sonof Brahma, by cutting the gap in the hills at Baramulla (Varaha-mula).In the 18th century, Kashmir was ruled by the Muslim Pashtun Durrani Empire. In 18 19, Kashmir wasconquered by the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh. Following the First Ang lo-Sikh War in 1845 and 1846,Kashmir was first ceded by the Treaty of Lahore to the East India Company, and shortly after sold bythe Treaty of Amritsar to Gulab Singh, Raja of Jammu, who thereafter was given the title Maharaja ofJammu and K ashmir. From then until the Partition of India in 1947, Kashmir was ruled by the HinduMaharajas of the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu, although the majorit y of the population wereMuslim, except in the Jammu region.Partition and dispute : 4. In 1947, British rule in India ended with the creation of two new nations: th e Union of India andthe Dominion of Pakistan, while British suzerainty over the 562 Indian princely states ended. Accordingto the Indian Independence Act 1947, "the suzerainty of His Majesty over the Indian States lapses, andwith it, all tr eaties and agreements in force at the date of the passing of this Act between Hi s Majesty and the rulers of Indian States so the states were left to choose wheth er to join India or Pakistan or to remainindependent. Jammu and Kashmir, the lar gest of the princely states, had a predominantly Muslimpopulation, while having a Hindu ruler (Maharaja Hari Singh.) On partition Pakistan expected Kashmir tobe annexed to it.In October 1947, Muslim revolutionaries in western Kashmirand Pak istani tribals from Dir enteredKashmir, intending to liberate it from Dogra rule . Unable to withstand the invasion, the Maharaja signedtheInstrument of Accessio n on 25 October 1947that was accepted by the government of India on 27October 19 47.After rumours that the Maharaja supported the annexation of Kashmir by India, militant Muslimrevolutionaries from western Kashmirand Pakistani tribesmen made rapid advances intothe Baramulla sector. Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir asked t he government of India to intervene.However, India and Pakistan had signed an ag reement of non-intervention. Although tribal fighters fromPakistan had entered J ammu and Kashmir, there was no iron-clad legal evidence to unequivocally proveth at Pakistan was officially involved. It would have been illegal for India to uni laterally intervene in anopen, official capacity unless Jammu and Kashmir offici

ally joined the Union of India, at which point itwould be possible to send in it s forces and occupy the remaining parts.The Maharaja desperately needed military assistance when the Pakistani tribals reached the outskirtsof Srinagar. Before their arrival into Srinagar, India argued that the Maharaja must complete negoti ationsfor ceding Jammu and Kashmir to India in exchange for receiving military a id. 5. The Instrument of Accession of Kashmir to India was accepted by Viceroy Louis Mountbatten, 1stEarl Mountbatten of Burma.The resulting war over Kashmir, the F irst Kashmir War, lasted until 1948, when India moved the issue tothe UN Securit y Council. Sheikh Abdullah was not in favor of India seeking UN intervention bec ausehe was sure the Indian Army could free the entire State of invaders. The UN had previously passedresolutions for setting up monitoring of the conflict in Ka shmir. Following the set-up of the United NationsMilitary Observer Group in Indi a and Pakistan (UNCIP), the UN Security Council passed Resolution47 on 21 April 1948. The resolution imposed an immediate cease-fire and called on Pakistan to w ithdrawall military presence. The resolution stated that Pakistan would have no say in Jammu and Kashmirpolitics. India would retain a minimum military presence . The ceasefire was enacted on 31 December1948.1965 and 1971 warsIn 1965 and 197 1, heavy fighting broke out again between India and Pakistan. The Indo-Pakistani Warof 1971 resulted in the defeat of Pakistan and the Pakistani militarys surre nder in East Pakistan, leadingto the creation of Bangladesh.The Simla Agreement was signed in 1972 between India and Pakistan.By this treaty, both countries agr eed to settle all issues by peaceful means using mutual discussion in theframewo rk of the UN Charter.Conflict in Kargil: 6. Location of conflict.In mid-1999, insurgents and Pakistani soldiers from Paki stani Kashmir infiltrated into Jammu andKashmir. During the winter season, India n forces regularly move down to lower altitudes, as severeclimatic conditions ma kes it almost impossible for them to guard the high peaks near the Line of Contr ol.The insurgents took advantage of this and occupied vacant mountain peaks ofth e Kargilrange overlooking the highway in Indian Kashmir that connects Srinagar a nd Leh. By blockingthe highway, they wanted to cut off the only link between the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh. This resultedin a high-scale conflict between the In dian Army and the Pakistan Army.Fears of the Kargil War turning into a nuclear w ar provoked the then-United States President BillClinton to pressure Pakistan to retreat. Faced with mounting losses of personnel and posts, the PakistanArmy wi thdrew their remaining troops from the area, ending the conflict. India reclaime d control of thepeaks, which they now patrol and monitor all year long.Reasons b ehind the dispute:The Kashmir Conflict arises from the Partition of India in 194 7 into modern India and Pakistan. Both thecountries have made claims to Kashmir, based on historical developments and religious affiliations of theKashmiri peop le. The state of Jammu and Kashmir, which lies strategically in the north-west o f thesubcontinent, bordering China and the former Soviet Union, was a princely s tate ruled by Maharaja HariSingh under the paramountcy of British India. In geog raphical and legal terms, the Maharaja couldhave joined either of the two new Do minions. Although urged by the Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten ofBurma, to determine t he future of his state before the transfer of power took place, Singh demurred. InOctober 1947, incursions by Pakistan took place leading to a war,as a result o f which the state of Jammuand Kashmir remains divided between the two countries. Administered by Area Population % Muslim % Hindu % Buddhist % 7. Other KashmirIndia ~4 million 95% 4% valley Jammu ~3 million 30% 66% 4% Ladak h ~0.25 million 46% (Shia) 50% 3% NorthernPakistan ~1 million 99% Areas Azad ~2. 6 million 100% KashmirChina Aksai Chin Statistics from the BBC report. In De There are roughly 1.5 million refugees from Indian- administered Kashmir in Paki stan administered Kashmir and Pakistan UNHCR About 300,000 Hindus in Indian Admin istered Kashmir valley are internally displaced due to militancy in Kashmir CIA M uslims are the majority in Poonch, Rajouri, Kishtwar, and Doda districts in Jamm u region. Shia Muslims make up the majority in Kargil district in Ladakh region. India does not accept the two-nation theory and considers that Kashmir, despite being a Muslim-majority state, is in many ways an "integral part" of secular Ind ia.Two-thirds of the former princely state (known as the Indian state of Jammu a

nd Kashmir),comprising Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, and the sparsely populated Bud dhist area of Ladakh arecontrolled by India; one-third is administered by Pakist an. The latter includes a narrow strip of landcalled Azad Kashmir and the Northe rn Areas, compromising the Gilgit Agency, Baltistan, and the formerkingdoms of H unza and Nagar. Attempts to resolve the dispute through political discussions we reunsuccessful. In September 1965, war broke out again between Pakistan and Indi a. The United Nationscalled for another cease-fire, and peace was restored once again following the Tashkent Declaration in1966, by which both nations returned to their original positions along the demarcated line. After the 1971war and the creation of independent Bangladesh, under the terms of the 1972 Simla Agreement between 8. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan, it was agreed that neithercountry would seek to alter the cease-fire line in Kashm ir, which was renamed as the Line of Control,"unilaterally, irrespective of mutu al differences and legal interpretations".Numerous violations of the Line of Con trol have occurred, including the incursions by insurgentsand Pakistani armed fo rces at Kargil leading to the Kargil war. There are also sporadic clashes onthe Siachen Glacier, where the Line of Control is not demarcated and both countries maintainforces at altitudes rising to 20,000 ft (6,100 m), with the Indian force s serving at higher altitudesIndian view:Maharaja Hari Singh signed theInstrumen t of Accession in October 1947 under which he acceded the State ofJammu and Kash mir to the Union of India.View Points:The Indian view point is succinctly summar ized by Ministry of External affairs, Government of India. India holds that the I nstrument of Accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to the Union of India, signed by Maharaja Hari Singh on 25 October 1947 & executed on 27 October 1947 b etween the ruler of Kashmir and the Governor General of India was a legal act, w as completely valid in terms of the Government of India Act (1935),Indian Indepe ndence Act (1947) and international law and was total and irrevocable. There is no evidence of any deceit practiced by India on Kashmir. The Constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir had unanimously ratified the Maharajas Instrument of Acces sion to India and had adopted a constitution for the state that called for a per petual merger of Jammu and Kashmir with the Union of India. India claims that th e Constituent assembly was a representative one, and that its views were those o f the Kashmiri people at the time. The most popular political party, the Nationa l Conference, was also in favour of acceding to India. United Nations Security Co uncil Resolution 1172 tacitly accepts Indias stand regarding all outstanding iss ues between India and Pakistan and urges the need to resolve the dispute through mutual dialogue and does not call for a plebiscite. United Nations Security Coun cil Resolution 47 cannot be implemented since Pakistan failed to withdraw its fo rces from Kashmir, which was the first step in implementing the resolution. 9. India is also of the view that Resolution 47 is obsolete, since the geography and demographics of the region have been permanently altered. The resolution wa s passed byUnited Nations Security Council under Chapter VI of the United Nation s Charter. It is therefore non-binding and has no mandatory enforceability, as o pposed to the resolutions passed under Chapter VII. India does not accept the two -nation theory that forms the basis of Pakistan and considers that Kashmir, desp ite being a Muslim-majority state, is in many ways an "integral part" of secular India. The state of Jammu and Kashmir was provided significant autonomy in Artic le 370 of the Constitution of India. All differences between India and Pakistan, including Kashmir, need to be settled through bilateral negotiations as agreed t o by the two countries when they signed the Simla Agreement on 2 July 1972.Addit ional Indian viewpoints regarding the broader debate over the Kashmir conflict i nclude: In a diverse country like India, disaffection and discontent are not unco mmon. Indian democracy has the necessary resilience to accommodate genuine griev ances within the framework of Indias sovereignty, unity, and integrity. The Gove rnment of India has expressed its willingness to accommodate the legitimate poli tical demands of the people of the state of Kashmir. Insurgency and terrorism in Kashmir is deliberately being fueled by Pakistan to create instability in the re gion. The Government of India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of waging a proxy war in Kashmir by providing weapons and financial assistance to terrorist groups

in the region. Pakistan is trying to raise anti-India sentiment among the people of Kashmir by spreading false propaganda against India. According to the state government of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistani radio and television channels deliber ately spread "hate and venom" against India to alter Kashmiri opinion. India has asked the United Nations not to leave unchallenged or unaddressed the claims of moral, political, and diplomatic support for terrorism, which were clearly in co ntravention of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373. This is a Chapte r VII resolution that makes it mandatory for member states to not provide active or passive support to terrorist organizations. Specifically, it has pointed out that the Pakistani government continues to support various terrorist organizati ons, such as Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, in direct violation of this r esolution.Pakistani view: 10. Map of Kashmir as drawn by the Government of PakistanPakistans claims to the disputed region are based on the rejection of Indian claims to Kashmir, namelyt he Instrument of Accession. Pakistan insists that the Maharaja was not a popular leader, and wasregarded as a tyrant by most Kashmiris. Pakistan maintains that the Maharaja used brute force tosuppress the population.Pakistan claims that Ind ian forces were in Kashmir before the Instrument of Accession was signed withInd ia, and that therefore Indian troops were in Kashmir in violation of the Standst ill Agreement, whichwas designed to maintain the status quo in Kashmir (although India was not signatory to the Agreement,which was signed between Pakistan and the Hindu ruler of Jammu and Kashmir).From 1990 to 1999, some organizations repo rted that the Indian Armed Forces, its paramilitary groups,and counter-insurgent militias were responsible for the deaths of 4,501 Kashmiri civilians. Similaral legations were also made by some human rights organizations.In short, Pakistan h olds that: The popular Kashmiri insurgency demonstrates that the Kashmiri people no longer wish to remain within India. Pakistan suggests that this means that Ka shmir either wants to be with Pakistan or independent. According to the Two-Natio n Theory,which is one of the theories that is cited for the partition that creat ed India and Pakistan, Kashmir should have been with Pakistan, because it has a Muslim majority. India has shown disregard to the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the United Nations Commission in India and Pakistan by failing to ho ld a plebiscite to determine the future allegiance of the state. The Kashmiri peo ple have now been forced by circumstances to uphold their right of self- determi nation through militancy. Pakistan claims to give the Kashmiri insurgents moral, ethical and military support. 11. Recent protests in Indian-administered Kashmir attracted a large number of p eople to massive rallies that took place to oppose Indian control of the state. P akistan points to the violence that accompanies elections in Indian Kashmirand t he anti Indian sentiments expressed by some people in the state. Pakistan has not ed the widespread use of extrajudicial killings in Indian-administered Kashmir c arried out by Indian security forces while claiming they were caught up in encou nters with militants. These encounters are commonplace in Indian-administered Ka shmir. The encounters go largely uninvestigated by the authorities, and the perp etrators are spared criminal prosecution. Pakistan points towards reports from th e United Nations which condemn India for its human rights violations against Kas hmiri people.Human rights organizations have strongly condemned Indian troops fo r widespread rape and murder of innocent civilians while accusing these civilian s of being militants. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari stated in October 2008 that Kashmiri freedom fighters were terrorists. His remarks were met with widesp read condemnation across Pakistan and Kashmir, including from prominent politici ans.Chinese view China did not accept the boundaries of the princely state of Kas hmir and Jammu, north of the Aksai Chin and the Karakoram that were proposed by the British. China settled its border disputes with Pakistan in the Trans Karakor am Tract in 1963 with the provision that the settlement was subject to the final solution of the Kashmir dispute.Cross-border troublesThe border and the Line of Control separating Indian and Pakistani Kashmir passes through someexceptionall y difficult terrain. The worlds highest battleground, the Siachen Glacier, is a part of thisdifficult-to-man boundary. Even with 200,000 military personnel Indi a maintains that it is infeasible toplace enough men to guard all sections of th

e border throughout the various seasons of the year.Pakistan has indirectly acqu iesced its role in failing to prevent "cross border terrorism" when it agreed to curb such activities after intense pressure from the Bush administration in Mid 2002.The Government of Pakistan has repeatedly claimed that by constructing a fe nce along the line of control,India is violating the Shimla Accord. India claims the construction of the fence has helped decreasearmed infiltration into Indian -administered Kashmir.In 2002, Pakistani President and Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf promised to check infiltrationinto Jammu and Kashmir.Water dispute: 12. Another reason for the dispute over Kashmir is water. Kashmir is the origin point for many rivers andtributaries of the Indus River basin. They include the Jhelum and Chenab rivers, which primarily flow intoPakistan while other branchest he Ravi, Beas, and the Sutlejirrigate northern India. The BoundaryAward of 1947 m eant that the headwaters of Pakistani irrigation systems were in Indian territor y. Pakistanhas been apprehensive that in a dire need, India (under whose portion of Kashmir lies the origins andpassage of these rivers) would withhold the flow and thus choke the agrarian economy of Pakistan.TheIndus Waters Treaty signed i n 1960 resolved most of these disputes over water, calling for mutualcooperation in this regard. But the treaty faced issues raised by Pakistan over the constru ction of damson the Indian side which limit water flow to the Pakistani side.Hum an rights abuse:Indian administered Kashmir: In Jammu and Kashmir, the Islamic in surgency has claimed to have specifically targeted the Hindu Kashmiri Pandit min ority and violated their human rights. 400,000 Kashmiri Hindus have either been murdered or displaced. The violence was condemned and labeled as ethnic cleansin g in a 2006 resolution passed by the United States Congress. The CIA has reporte d about 300,000 Pandit Hindus and over 100,000 Kashmiri Muslims from Indian Admi nistered Kashmir are internally displaced due to the insurgency.The United Natio ns Commission on Human Rights reports that there are roughly 1.5 million refugee s from Indian-administered Kashmir in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in Pakis tan. Claims of human rights abuses have been made against the Indian Armed Forces and the armed militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir.Amnesty International ha s called on India to "unequivocally condemn enforced disappearances" and to ensu re that impartial investigation is conducted on mass graves in its Kashmir regio n. The Indian state police confirms as many as 331 deaths while in custody and 1 11 enforced disappearances since 1989. Several international agencies and the UN have reported human rights violations in Indian- administered Kashmir. In a rece nt press release the OHCHR spokesmen stated "The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is concerned about the recent violent protests in Indian- admi nistered Kashmir that have reportedly led to civilian casualties as well as rest rictions to the right to freedom of assembly and expression." A 1996 Human Right s Watch report accuses the Indian military and Indian-government backed paramili taries of "committing serious and widespread human 13. rights violations in Kashmir."One such alleged massacre occurred on 6 Januar y 1993 in the town of Sopore. TIME Magazine described the incident as such: "In r etaliation for the killing of one soldier, paramilitary forces rampaged through Sopores market, setting buildings ablaze and shooting bystanders. The Indian gov ernment pronounced the event unfortunate and claimed that an ammunition dump had been hit by gunfire, setting off fires that killed most of the victims."There h ave been claims of disappearances by the police or the army in Kashmir by severa l human rights organizations. Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978:Human ri ghts organizations have asked Indian government to repealthe Public Safety Act, since "a detainee may be held in administrative detention for a maximum of two y ears without a court order." A soldier guards the roadside checkpoint outside Sri nagar International Airport in January 2009. Many human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch (HRW) have condemned human rights abuses in Kashmir by Indians such as "extra-judicial executions", "disapp earances", and torture.The "Armed Forces Special Powers Act" grants the military , wide powers of arrest, the right to shoot to kill, and to occupy or destroy pr operty in counterinsurgency operations. Indian officials claim that troops need such powers because the army is only deployed when national security is at serio us risk from armed combatants. Such circumstances, they say, call for extraordin

ary measures. Human rights organizations have also asked Indian government to re peal the Public Safety Act, since "a detainee may be held in administrative dete ntion for a maximum of two years without a court order."A 2008 report by the Uni ted Nations High Commissioner for Refugees determined that Indian Administered K ashmir was only partly free. A recent report by Amnesty International stated tha t up to 20,000 people have been detained by draconian laws in Indian-administere d Kashmir.Pakistan administered KashmirAzad Kashmir: Pakistan, an Islamic Republi c, imposes multiple restrictions on peoples religious freedom. Religious minorit ies also face unofficial economic and societal discrimination and have been targ ets of sectarian violence. 14. The constitution of Azad Kashmir specifically prohibits activities that may be prejudicial to the states accession to Pakistan, and as such regularly suppre sses demonstrations against the government. A number of Islamist militant groups operate in this area including Al-Qaeda, with tacit permission from Pakistans i ntelligence. As in Indian administered Kashmir, there have been allegations of h uman rights abuse. A report titled "Kashmir: Present Situation and Future Prospec ts", which was submitted to the European Parliament by Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, was critical of the lack of human rights, justice, de mocracy, and Kashmiri representation in the Pakistan National Assembly. Accordin g to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, According to Shaukat Ali, chairman of the International Kashmir Alliance, "On one hand Pakistan claims to be the ch ampion of the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people, but she has de nied the same rights under its controlled parts of Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan" .Gilgit Baltistan: The main demand of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan is a constit utional status to the region as a fifth province of Pakistan.However, Pakistan c laims that Gilgit-Baltistan cannot be given constitutional status due to Pakista ns commitment to the 1948 UN resolution.In 2007, International Crisis Group stat ed that:"Almost six decades after Pakistans independence, the constitutional sta tus of the FederallyAdministered Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan), once par t of the former princely state ofJammu and Kashmir and now under Pakistani contr ol, remains undetermined, with politicalautonomy a distant dream. The regions in habitants are embittered by Islamabads unwillingnessto devolve powers in real te rms to its elected representatives, and a nationalist movement, whichseeks indep endence, is gaining ground. The rise of sectarian extremism is an alarmingconseq uence of this denial of basic political rights". A two-day conference on Gilgit-B altistan was held on 89 April 2008 at the European Parliament in Brussels under t he auspices of the International Kashmir Alliance. Several members of the Europe an Parliament expressed concern over the human rights violation in Gilgit-Baltis tan and urged the government of Pakistan to establish democratic institutions an d rule of law in the area. In 2009, the Pakistan government implemented an autono my package for Gilgit-Baltistan which entails rights similar to those of Pakista n's other provinces. Gilgit-Baltistan thus gains province-like status without actu ally being conferred such a status constitutionally. The direct rule by Islamaba d is replaced by an elected legislative assembly and its chief minister.India's Po sitions The accession of Kashmir to India is legally indisputable Religion is ir relevant in determining control of Kashmira large Muslim community supported the accession of Kashmir to India The Pakistani sponsorship of terrorism in Kashmir disrupts the democratic process in the region 15. International intervention is out of the question, as Kashmir is strictly In dia's affair Pakistan's Positions Kashmir rightfully belongs to Pakistan due to thei r religious and economic ties Pakistan does not provide material aid to any terr orists or insurgents in Kashmir In accordance with the UN Security Council, Paki stan considers India's claim to Kashmir invalid The Kashmiri people should be allo wed to choose between Pakistani and Indian control through a plebiscite Kashmir's Positions Kashmiris overwhelmingly favor independence A poll conducted in the Ka shmiri capital of Srinagar in 2007 revealed that 87% of Kashmiris desire indepen dence, 7% favor Indian rule, and 3% prefer Pakistani control Kashmiris oppose In dian rule due to the restrictions placed on them by Indian security forces and a lleged human rights abuses by the Indian government A Proposal for a Solutiono E stablish a Kashmiri Sovereignty Commission (KSC) The commission would first dete

rmine the viability of Kashmiri independence in terms of economic and political stability The commission would then hold a referendum in Kashmir confirming the people's desire for independenceo Considering the results of the referendum, intro duce a resolution urging the global community to support Kashmiri sovereigntyo U se support from the global community to persuade India and Pakistan to recognize Kashmir as an independent nationo Draft a resolution in the Security Council re cognizing Kashmir as a sovereign state and calling for demilitarization of the r egiono Establish a UN transitional government in Kashmir to develop infrastructu re and securityo Hold elections for an independent, parliamentary governmento Th is proposal is contingent on the participation of member nations in creating the necessary resolutions and commissions 16. o If India and Pakistan fail to recognize Kashmir as independent, more force ful action could be taken; Kosovo provides a precedento In this proposal, the Un ited Nations acts as the medium used to achieve a lasting solution for the confl ictConclusiono Greater understanding of this conflict---history and developments o The necessity of resolving this conflict, as well as potential solutionso The important role that the UN has in mediating the situation