Author(s):
Chayer Amelie <amelie@icbl.org> .
Friday 28 May 2010
By Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor
On 14 May 2010, the Sessions Court in Kupwara District, Jammu and Kashmir, directed the government of India to pay Rs 1.2 million (US$26,199) to Gulzar Mir, a double amputee who lost his legs to an Indian Army laid antipersonnel mine in 2002 while grazing livestock near his home village of Warsun in Kupwara District.
Gulzar Mir (left with cane) called a meeting of villagers to share their experiences living in a mined area, with Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan of Landmine Monitor. Photo: A. Moser-Puangsuwan, November 2006
According to media reports, the judge presiding over this case ruled that the Indian Army failed to provide evidence that the state had transferred control of the forest where Gulzar Mir grazed his animals to the Army, or that there was a just and fair basis for placing the antipersonnel mines in this area. The judge stated that India is responsible for compensating victims from Warsun, and that Gulzar Mir had a right to claim damages. While Gulzar Mir was awarded compensation, the 14 May judgement does not require the Indian Army to clear mines in Warsun, and confirmed that the Army has the legal right to lay mines. It is not known if the state will appeal the judgement. The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition for Civil Society (JKCCS) arranged a lawyer to represent Gulzar Mir in this case.
In the past, the Indian government has stated that mine survivors are compensated by the state. In 2009, Landmine Monitor met with 21 mine survivors in Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir, and discovered none of them had received any compensation. Right to information requests mobilized by the Control Arms Foundation of India revealed that the government of India has provided compensation, under its legal requirements, between January 2007 and December 2008 to three people and in 2009 to 29 people. Other mine survivors must be bold enough to take the Indian government to court and demand compensation.
Warsun village lies in the foothills of the Pangi Range of the Himalaya, about 20km from the Line of Control separating Pakistani and Indian-administered areas of Kashmir. Four people, including Gulzar Mir have been injured, and one child died as a result of mines planted in the forest by the Indian Army in the early 1990s.
In the mid-1990s, Warsun villagers asked an Indian Army unit stationed in the village to remove the mines due to the threat they posed to the community. The Army unit could not remove the mines since they did not know where they were laid and had no minefield maps. Gulzar Mir facilitated a mission by the Landmine Monitor to his village in October 2006 (see Kashmir: Landmines disrupt village life).
Gulzar Mir points to the mine-affected areas above Warsun village. Since the ICBL visit, a child was killed in a mine incident. Photo: A. Moser-Puangsuwan, November 2006
The presence of mines in the forest above the village has caused widespread hardship. Residents can no longer collect firewood and forest products and were forced to cut trees within the village for their domestic use. Without access to safe land in the forest for grazing livestock, some villagers have abandoned animal husbandry. According to the JKCCS, signs marking mined areas used to be only in Hindi, which is not an official language in Jammu and Kashmir. Following action by the JKCCS some signs had Urdu text added in Kupwara District, but JKCCS does not know how widely this has been done because access to most mine-affected communities is prohibited due to military control of the areas. In its 14 May judgement, the Kupwara court noted that "The State constitution recognizes Urdu as an official language. It has a historical background. However, expecting the residents of Valley to be conversant with the Hindi language would be unfair and unjust."
India is not a party to the Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits the use of antipersonnel mines. India is bound by the Convention on Conventional Weapons, and its Amended Protocol II, which requires that India provide effective exclusion of civilians from areas containing antipersonnel mines. That does not appear to be happening in Jammu and Kashmir.
Gulzar Mir spoke on his experience and the situation in Kashmir at the ICBL organized 10-year anniversary event for the Mine Ban Treaty in Delhi in September 2007 (see India Commemorates the 10th Anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty).
For further information see the Landmine Monitor Report 2009 chapter on India.
