THERE IS NO INDIA:

2 Killings Stoke Kashmiri Rage at Indian Force (LYDIA POLGREEN, 8/14/09, NY Times)

“India says Kashmir is a free part of a free country,” said Majid Khan, a 20-year-old unemployed man who has joined the stone-throwing mobs. “If that is so, why are we being brutalized? Why are women gang raped?”

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, and the Himalayan border region remains at the heart of the 62-year rivalry between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Settling the Kashmir dispute is the key to unlocking the region’s tensions, something the United States hopes will eliminate Pakistan’s shadowy support for militant groups and allow its army to shift attention toward fighting Taliban militants.

Despite Kashmiri rage and the damage to India’s image, the Indian government has bridled at any outside pressure to negotiate a solution, let alone reduce its force level here. Caught in the middle are Kashmir’s 10 million people. The case of Asiya and Nilofar is only the latest abuse to strike a chord with Kashmiris, who say it is emblematic of the problems of what amounts to a full-scale occupation.

It doesn't matter whether it's India in Kashmir, Russia in Chechnya, China in Tibet and Uighurstan, The Maronites/Sunni in Hezbollahstan, or Israel in Palestine, peoples who think of themselves as nations are.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 16, 2009 7:16 AM