Kashmir Update: The PTUDC Relief Operation

We have received this report from the PTUDC in Kashmir. The report details the relief operation in the three main centres of Kashmir, as well as providing some information about a new student federation that is being organized to help in the relief work. Unfortunately the comrades have been unable to recover the goods of the Fifth Solidarity Caravan, and the goods of the Sixth Caravan are also being held up at the border. It seems that the state is actively sabotaging our campaign! We must put pressure on the state to release the relief goods!

Muzaffarabad:

The PTUDC’s relief camp was set up in Muzaffarabad just three days after the earthquake. There are 47 PTUDC members and supporters who are helping to run the camp. We have distributed relief goods to the most needy and desperate in 15 remote villages up in the mountains in this area. The PTUDC has also been involved in organizing the twelve panchayats (soviets) that have been set up in the city of Muzaffarabad and surroundings villages for relief work. These panchayats are organizing centres for the city and surrounding areas and serious political discussions in these panchayats has begun.

There has been a tremendous response to our camps and our relief operation from the people in this area. We have had to spend to a lot of time countering the propaganda of the fundamentalists who say that the earthquake was the “wrath of God” and that God was “eradicating sin”. We have countered their propaganda by offering people a scientific, political, and a class-based explanation of the calamity and its aftermath. A large part of this consists in explaining the reasons behind the failure of the state to provide adequate relief and rescue to the victims of the earthquake. We are winning more and more support amongst the masses for our political position on the earthquake and its aftermath through our transitional demands on the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction of the area.

The connections between the army and the Islamic fundamentalists have been exposed in this operation. The army supplies relief goods and money to the camps of the fundamentalists. Several army vehicles have been seen flying the flags of the fundamentalist organizations. Even NATO troops in the area are supporting the fundamentalists and their relief operations to enhance their prestige. However, it is clear that as the failure of these operations becomes more and more clear, the support of the Pakistani Army and NATO for the fundamentalists will have the opposite effect and backfire.

The fundamentalists and the military have not treated the victims of the earthquake very well. They have been abrasive and rude. There are already clear signs that the people are becoming increasingly resentful and angry at the humiliation they have suffered in the camps set up by the state and the fundamentalists.

There has been a mass exodus of the people from Muzaffarabad. At the same time there has been a continuous influx of people from the surrounding mountain villages into the camps set up in the city. So many villagers have come into the city that they are now overcrowding the city and the authorities are forcing them to go back. These poor people have no options. Winter has set in and they cannot go back to their devastated villages, yet there is not sufficient shelter in Muzaffarabad. The PTUDC is intervening in this crisis and is trying to organize demonstrations to pressurize the authorities to provide proper relief and shelter to these people.

The work of the PTUDC has been a great success in Muzaffarabad. However, one of the setbacks we face was due to the blockage of relief goods from India, which would have refilled the depleting relief goods at our camps. On November 17, the Fifth PTUDC Revolutionary Solidarity Caravan arrived from Indian-controlled Kashmir at the Chagothi checkpoint – one of the points along the Line of Control that was supposed to be opened.

Twenty-five comrades went with three trucks to collect the relief goods at the border and take them to our camps. Our vehicles carried red flags which read “PTUDC Revolutionary Solidarity Caravan”, along with the banners and emblems of the PTUDC. The military officers at the checkpoint were baffled and visibly agitated at the sight and began using all sorts of delaying tactics to prevent us from collecting the goods. We arrived at the Line of Control at 10:30 am and stayed until 4:30 pm. However, the comrades were still unable to collect the relief goods. All the officers from different ranks used different excuses. Some told the comrades that there were no goods at all, while other said that there were goods in the name of Manzoor Ahmed MNA, but that they could not be delivered due to the procedural problems etc. Finally, a Brigadier asked us to come back the next day to see if we could collect our goods.

After a hazardous journey we went back to the checkpoint on November 18, but yet again after a whole day of negotiations we were unable to collect the goods. It is very likely that the army has confiscated the goods and is using them in their own camps, as well as in the camps of the fundamentalists. Our comrades were told that only government-to-government deliveries were allowed – even though several of our caravans have already come through the Line of Control. The soldiers were furious to see the revolutionary banners and flags on our trucks - while the flags of the reactionary fundamentalists have been hung on the military trucks. So much for the secular credentials of Musharraf and his “enlightened moderation”! There has been a lot of talk of demilitarisation on both sides of the Line of Control in the aftermath of this disaster. Yet the reality is that the military has further entrenched itself and is trying to consolidate its hold on Kashmir.

Bagh

Bagh was one of the most devastated cities in the earthquake. The devastation has created panic and complete chaos. The PTUDC relief camp was set-up five days after the earthquake. The organisation of the relief centre took much longer in Bagh than in other areas of Kashmir because many of the comrades and key supporters had their homes destroyed in the earthquake.

A second PTUDC relief camp was set-up 6 days later in collaboration with the People’s Students Federation (PSF) and the National Student’s Federation (NSF). Shortly thereafter we organised a school named “The New Age Volunteer School”, which became one of our medical camps where the comrades who are doctors treated victims of the quake. We also had to spend a lot of time educating students and others in the relief and medical camps against the nonsense of “the wrath of God” and “punishment of sin” etc. Such was the impact of this work that the pressure from the people became so intense that the main Mullah at the central Bagh mosque had to denounce the theory that the earthquake was the wrath of God and had to put forward the views of the comrades on the earthquake and its aftermath in his weekly sermon.

The New Age Volunteer School has been renamed “The Revolutionary Youth Club” and is attracting a lot of opposition from the army and the fundamentalists. The camp here is totally dependent upon the relief goods that have been sent from around the subcontinent, however the comrade are determined to keep the camp open even when without relief goods. We have also begun to organize the building of sheds to act as shelter for local victims of the earthquake. We are trying to organise this construction in such a way that the whole community is collectively engaged in the rebuilding.

Rawlakot:

The PTUDC had been renting an office in Rawlakot before the earthquake. It was very surprising that the building’s already weak structure survived the quake. The office was immediately converted into our central relief camp in the area. The PTUDC has many members and supporters here. As a result our activities here were strongest.

The PTUDC rented a shop where the relief goods could be stored. From here the relief goods were distributed to the relief camp to various villages and towns in the surrounding area. To this point we have helped organize 23 local panchayts (soviets) in and around Rawlakot.

Most of the people that visited the camps of the military and the fundamentalists were astonished at the huge difference in the attitude they discovered there and fraternal behaviour of the comrades at our camps. One of our relief camp workers commented that almost every victim who visited our camp, especially after discussions and receiving political material, as well as some relief goods, had “a light in their eyes” and went away filled with hope and optimism and the will to fight and live.

Apart from the relief goods delivered by the PTUDC Solidarity Caravans, the comrades in this area were able to get six extra trucks of relief goods from other organizations and individuals. The comrades also got Rs 500,000 from a trust and distributed it to the victims who were re-building their homes.

We must also report that the sixth PTUDC Revolutionary Solidarity Caravan reached Teetrinot, the checkpoint linking this area to Indian-held Kashmir on November 21. Again the army used delaying tactics and the comrades whose names were on the papers for the goods were not handed over the consignment. It is clear for all to see that the “opening up of the LoC” is absolutely false and cynical.

The PTUDC has also played a role in organizing three demonstrations over the last week against the state’s poor handling of the relief operation and extremely chaotic and discriminatory distribution of goods.

Student Work:

The student movement in Kashmir is very fractured. The movement is divided between several organizations which include: the JKNSF (Jammu Kashmir National student Federation), the JKPSF (Jammu Kashmir People’s Student Federation), the JKSLF (Jammu Kashmir Student Liberation Front) and the JKPSO (Jammu Kashmir People’s Student Organisation). Obviously, this seriously weakens the student movement. Beyond that, there are also factional struggles in all of these organizations and the official leadership have failed to galvanize these organizations in the rescue and relief operations in an effective manner.

The work of the PTUDC and our relief operation has had an impact on many of the youths organized into these different federations. Many youth have joined our relief operation and are actively involved in helping with the work in the camps. The PTUDC has helped to call a meeting of all of these student organizations on Sunday December 4 in Rawalpindi to bring them all together and broaden the scope of the relief operations. We have decided to call this group, which will be composed of members from all the federations, the Jammu Kashmir Revolutionary Youth Front.

Of course many of the nationalist leaders will try to block this meeting because they know that it directly threatens their own interests in maintaining a fractured movement, but we are confident that we will be able to attract a wide layer of youth to this Revolutionary Youth Front. We will be publishing more reports on this meeting as well as its political programme in the coming weeks. We have sent invitations to all the main youth organizations, except the Islamic and sectarian organizations.

The relief operation is moving ahead at full speed. The crisis in Kashmir is no longer being covered in the media but the situation is still serious. As can be seen in this report, there is a developing political struggle in Kashmir as a result of the state’s horrendous mishandling of the relief operations. Local committees of workers and peasants are organizing their own relief and rescue operations. Now the state is interfering with this work and is blocking the sending of goods from Indian and elsewhere. From this work the people of Kashmir will draw the inevitable conclusion that they can only rely on themselves and that capitalism and the Musharraf regime are miserable failures. The self-organization of the people of Kashmir will bring them into conflict with the state, the army, and the fundamentalists, and will drive them towards revolutionary conclusions.

Winter has set in and many people are desperate and face certain death unless something is done urgently. The PTUDC is playing an excellent role in the relief operations, but the state is actively sabotaging our campaign. We need all the support we can get to ensure that our relief caravans are able to get to their destinations.

You can send a protest message to Musharraf by going to this site:

http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/Write2thePresident.aspx

Outline what has happened and demand that he stops this scandalous behaviour.

You can also find your local Pakistani embassy, if you wish to write to them, at:

http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/pakistan.htm

And of course solidarity messages can be sent to:

info [at] ptudc.org

Reported by:

S.N. Shoorida

Secy, Kashmir region