 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today we have with us Siva Mustafa, senior journalist and also closely watching the Kashmir issue. The SHRC has given its report, the State Human Rights Commission, and it seems to be quite an explosive report that it has said the more than 2,700 unmarked graves, there are 2,156 bodies which have been found which are unidentified. It's really come down, made clear what has been known in Kashmir for quite some time. There have been a number of people who have disappeared over the last 20 years of insurgency. What is the government response going to be? Well, it should have responded a long time ago. There has been no response, unfortunately. You haven't heard anything about those mass graves from the central government, except a few remarks, stray odd remarks just yesterday from Chidambaram and nothing really from the chief minister except that he's reiterated what he's been saying for a long time about a truth and reconciliation commission and which at some point in time which he says should be formed along with Pakistan, so India and Pakistan first have to agree on this commission, then it will be appointed. So, it's just the usual rhetoric slipping away. Of course, some compensation has been announced. But then the fact is that in these graves, only 500 odd people have been identified. What about the thousands who haven't? Not just in this lot of graves, but so many mass graves that are unearthed every now and again in Kashmir? This is really four districts of North Kashmir. There are 20 districts of Kashmir. There are four districts in Jammu which could also see such unmarked graves, though the Poonj Rajori and so on. So, do you think now the State Human Rights Commission would go into these areas also? I think there will be a demand for it and they have to go for it. See, it's very important this report because it's really confirming what a lot of individuals like Parveena, Ahungar, other groups, civil rights people have been saying for a long time that people have disappeared, hundreds and thousands have disappeared. In Kashmir you have this whole concept of half widows. Women are still waiting for their husbands to come back. So, you know you're really in that kind of a position where people just are picked up from their homes and they disappear without trace. There was an 80-year-old boy who just disappeared in this whole thing. So, I think it is very important now for the State Human Rights Commission to really look into the people's complaints and to get really aggressive about this whole issue. You know, the one simple issue of course is immediately DNA matching because there are families who have been claiming that their people have disappeared, the 10,000 missing according to their reports. So, effectively what needs to be done is to look at these people, match the DNA tissues within the capability of the Indian government. Why do you think that no announcement, no such immediate measures have been taken? Considering the SHRC itself has actually made this recommendation. Because it's Kashmir. Somehow anything that happens in Kashmir is you know you have this complete indifference from the center and from of course unfortunately also the state government. I mean we had not so long ago when Rahul Gandhi had a press conference about the village in UP and he talked of mass graves. I think he just got his geography wrong. He was talking of a village in UP where there were no mass graves and there was a press conference and you had teams of the Congress rushing to the spot where they didn't find anybody. Now the same direction could have been given to them for Kashmir but I think that's where the government, the Congress and the state government, the national conference government have just decided that they are not going to do anything. Though it's not the final report. On the 16th September they are giving chance to all the agencies included, including the government agencies to respond to their interim report. Doesn't look like they can really reverse this because it seems to be a very well investigated and well documented case that they have brought out. Yeah absolutely. You know it has a ring of authenticity. I think all of us who have been dealing with reports and documents for so many years now, you know when there is an air of authenticity. So of course there will be questions asked. There will be even the State Human Rights Commission will have to further prove it but the point is that it seems to be completely legit. So instead of 2800 odd bodies I think they've said it can be 2600, it could be 3500 but the point is that these mass graves exist and if these have been found in four districts of North Kashmir then there could be so many else in the rest of Kashmir and like you said in Jammu. Now coming back to the issue of you know the fact that Kashmir has now seen at least documented cases accepted by an independent body like the State Human Rights Commission of such a large number of unidentified bodies. The impact on the rest of the country has also been very muted. If you really look at the media that also almost covered everything under the Anna garb at that point of time. But this is really huge and these numbers are very large. I mean during those days you had television channels, 24 hour television channels reporting the Anna Hazare fast 24 hours. It was as if there was no news, no other news in India or internationally. We had Libya happening, you had so much happening in West Asia and then you had this absolutely sensational report about Kashmir. I don't think there was a word on it on many channels. In the newspapers also it was buried inside. There have been no questions asked of the government. If reporters ever come across Chidambaram, the Home Minister now and again they ask him everything but Kashmir. There is this whole conspiracy of silence and on top of it you have the BJP putting more and more pressure on the Congress and the Congress sort of succumbing to that pressure insofar as taking rightful action in Kashmir is concerned. Insofar as ensuring justice in Kashmir is concerned. Insofar as stopping human rights violations in Kashmir is concerned. The whole agenda seems to be dictated by the BJP. The SHRC report could also be used imaginatively by the government as an opportunity to really put a closure to the people's anguish, take an initiative and I think Kashmir in that sense could be right for such an initiative. But they really in that sense a complete inability to understand the political dynamics of Kashmir seems to be what the central government is doing. Forget the state government but even the central government. Every opportunity is getting lost and then when the boys come out the young people who are really people who have been born in conflict, a generation that is born in conflict when they come out in anger as stone pelters. First they are described as terrorists, then they are killed and then the government attacks the people and those who are supporting them. Instead of using all these opportunities to mend fences, to build trust and confidence and to assure the people that at least there is some people in Delhi and in the government in Kashmir, Jammu in Kashmir who are going to listen. Do you think that independent initiatives are the kind that you have been taking. There is a place to try and actually explore a possibility of a larger reconciliation or at least if not a political settlement. See our initiatives at the end of the day are really a drop in the ocean. The way I see them is maybe we are able to release some of the pent up anger and we are able to maybe focus attention on what is going wrong in Kashmir which is just about everything. But we do need government action because the scale is so large. You need political action. Civil society groups like ours even though we are tying up with political parties can do so much and know more until parliament awakens to Kashmir where until the voice of the Kashmiris is heard inside the Indian parliament. And the whole issue is taken up on a war footing that is not happening. Given that BJP of course does not want Congress to settle Kashmir. If it comes to power then of course it might argue that we will settle it. The Congress seems to be completely comatose politically at least on Kashmir. Do you think that is a possible political space for others to intervene and try and get some kind of reaching out to Kashmir? I think there is a tremendous space. I mean if the rest of the opposition parties, the secular parties, the more progressive parties together make Kashmir an issue and ensure that all these problems that we are talking about just even the Human Rights Commission report is raised in parliament. The discussions are held and the government forced and compelled to at least form a parliamentary committee that will visit Jammu and Kashmir for dialogue with all sections of society, not just the society which the government wants to recognize. I think that can be done and if that is done that will be a major step forward. So the SHRC report damning as it is of what has happened could be also an opportunity in the sense of reaching out to the people of Kashmir and saying okay we really now taken board what is happening, it is proven, it is shown to be true and addressing it could be an opportunity in the sense. Yes because the political parties now do not have to say oh when we visited Kashmir Parvina Angar told us, others told us or the separatists told us they now can say that here is the document by a body which is appointed by the government which has the signature of the government and now it is your own report what are you doing about it. So you actually have authenticated document or something which everyone in Kashmir has been talking about for years and decades and about which nobody and I include the entire political system in Delhi has been listening. So there has to be a change. Thank you very much. Let's follow Kashmir as it unfolds. Thank you.