comrades and Friends given that I'm all
that stand between you and the t- room I
shall be unusually
brief the
fact that the labor party has had a very
long and close history of
involvement with India with the congress
party with the neru
family is
I think
significant in that I as the vice
chairman of the Foreign Affairs
Committee of the labor party my
colleague Mike Watson one of the leading
young members of the labor party in
Parliament that the labor MP Max
Madden whose letter was read out to you
today that the leading labor figer
Muhammad aib from Bradford is here today
that I can bring you fraternal greetings
from Gerald kofman the labor party
Shadow foreign secretary is I think
significant the message to India should
be
clear your conduct of the occupation of
Kashmir the
brutality and the criminality of the
behavior of your Armed
Forces is undermining and subverting all
the things about you that made us your
friends in
the I was uh taken by a quotation on
page 33 of cashmir needs World attention
distributed just a few minutes ago a
quotation from Mr neru on November 2
1947 when he said and I quote
we declare that the decision regarding
Kashmir shall be made by its people
neither can we revoke The Pledge nor
shall we revoke it so we say from the
British labor party to the successors to
Mr neru both in the Indian congress
party and in the minority government now
in delhi that is a pledge made by nuu
that is a pledge which should be kept
Kashmir has the right to exercise its
self-determination and India's brutal
denial of that right
that's as we
speak a whole
Armada of
500,000
soldiers six aircraft
carers the naval fleets of 12 Nations
the Armed Forces of 30 countries mass in
Saudi Arabia and in the Arabian
Gulf the UN Security Council has been in
virtually permanent session since August
the 2nd of this
year the most comprehensive level of
economic
sanctions and the most tight blockades
has been imposed upon the Republic of
Iraq by the International
Community what can it be that has moved
the International Community to such
extraordinary levels in the Arabian Gulf
yet leaves them completely unmoved by
the Flight of the people of
Kashmir what can it be which has led the
International Community to throw a
shroud of Silence over the denial of the
national rights of the Palestinian
people for more than four
decades Mak the move so Heaven and Earth
to redress the Injustice committed in
the Gulf I wonder if it's anything to do
with that dirtiest of threel Works oil I
wonder if it's anything to do with the
self-interest of the big Powers I wonder
if it's anything to do with the deths of
their hypocrisy so far as international
relations the United Nations excent in
its a
chapter in these ringing words
declares All Peoples have the right to
determine without external
interference their political status and
to pursue their economic social and
cultural development and every state has
the duty to respect this right well are
the kashmiris not a
people with a common culture a Common
Language a common history a common
experience which leads them to develop
bonds of nationhood
are the kashmiris not a nation have they
no National rights and if they do when
will the International Community stand
up and say they must have the
right and let us be clear on this
question
also self-determination is not about a
people having the right to give only an
answer self-determination means also
that the people must have the right to
frame the question as well as give the
answer
self-determination is not about my
insisting that you choose a or b it's
not about my asking you whether you want
to be in the frying pan or in the
fire choose the devil or the deep blue
sea it's about my giving you the right
to choose
the questions and the answers and that
is to that the International Community
must put no limits on the kashmir's
right to exercise under the United
Nations Charter their right to choose
their destination Independence autonomy
India or Pakistan condominium status
any but must have the right to choose
theum beckons I want to close by saying
this all over the world there are small
peoples yearning to be free I myself and
my colleague also Mike Watson are
scottage we are demanding our rights to
remain inside the British state in our
case as is our choice but with
substantial autonomy and a substantial
change to our relationship to
England there are peoples like the Scots
like the kashmiris all over the world
who live next to large sometimes
overbearing neighbors who must have that
right to self-define themselves and to
Define their relationship to those
neighbors AG it is vitally important
that there is a Unity across the world
amongst all small peoples yearning to
exercise that self-determination
and if I may the chair not his
fault Mis announced me at the beginning
I was awarded
the in last
year for services not to Pakistan in the
abstract but for services to the
struggle for the restoration of
democracy in
Pakistan but as I'm the holder of the
award
halam I guess that gives me the right to
quote that great sages works on Unity
faith and
discipline he said we are going through
fire the sunshine has yet to come but I
have no doubt that with unity faith and
discipline we will compare with any
nation of the world are you prepared to
undergo the fire you must make up your
minds now we must sink individualism and
Petty jealousies and make up our minds
to serve the people with honesty and
faithfulness we are passing through a
period of fear danger and Menace We Must
Have Faith Unity and discipline great
words that could have been written about
the current stage of the struggle of the
people of Kashmir but not the least of
those important parts is the world unity
and the world discipline and I agreed
with the contribution made by our friend
from the United States on this question
earlier Unity is a principle of the
labor movement and from its cradle the
British labor movement that Unity is
strength if Unity is strength this Unity
is disaster and indiscipline compounds
that disaster in so far it's open to me
to extend a fraternal hand to you and to
offer some advice if I may be so bold
with that it is that discipline and
unity are key elements along with the
courage which the Kashmir people are
showing in large measure not
[Applause]