India's presidency of the G20 group of leading nations has become mired in controversy after China and Saudi Arabia boycotted a meeting staged in Kashmir, the first such gathering since India unilaterally brought Kashmir under direct control in August 2019, according to the Guardian.
The meeting, a tourism working group attended by about 60 delegates from most G20 countries taking place from Monday to Wednesday, required a large show of security at Srinagar international airport.
In 2019 the Indian government stripped the disputed Muslim-majority region of semi-autonomy and split it into two federal territories in an attempt to integrate it fully into India.
China has made it clear that it will not attend any meetings in disputed Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, "China firmly opposes holding any form of G20 meetings on disputed territory."
Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are also boycotting the meeting.
Indian authorities hoped the meeting would show that the controversial changes have brought "peace and prosperity" to the region and that it is a safe place for tourists, the Guardian said, adding: India's elite National Security Guard, including its counter-drone unit and marine commandos, were helping police and paramilitary forces to secure the event venues.
According to MSN News, ahead of the G-20 working group meeting on tourism at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC), security measures have been significantly strengthened. To ensure the smooth execution of this high-profile event, elite National Security Guard (NSG) and marine commandos have been deployed alongside the police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and other paramilitary forces personnel. The city has experienced a robust deployment of security forces for area dominance and sanitization exercises.
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti was quoted by the Guardian as saying that India had turned the region into the equivalent of the Guanta'namo Bay prison simply to hold a meeting on tourism. She also accused the Bharatiya Janata party, the party of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, of hijacking the G20 for its promotional purposes.
Last week Fernand de Varennes, the UN's special rapporteur on minority issues, issued a statement saying the G20 was "unwittingly providing a veneer of support to a facade of normalcy" when human rights violations, political persecution and illegal arrests were escalating in Kashmir. He said the meeting risked normalising what some have described as a military occupation.
The Group of Twenty (G20) comprises of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States and the European Union. The influential bloc represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
Protest by Kashmiri Americans
Meanwhile Kashmiri American diaspora held a peaceful protest Monday in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York city against holding the G20 meeting in disputed territory of Kashmir. Digital trucks were also rented which displaced the messages: "G20 risks legitimizing India's illegal occupation of Kashmir", "G20 in Kashmir violates UN resolutions", "G20 in occupied Kashmir enables genocide", "Say NO to G20 in Kashmir", "Modi: face of Fascism", " "End the Occupation: Free Kashmir", "Demilitarize Kashmir", "India: Release All Political Prisoners."
A memorandum was submitted to the office of UN Secretary General, demanding among other issues the unconditional release of human rights defenders and political prisoners, such as Khurram Parvez, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmed Shah, Masarat Aalam, Aasia Andrabi and various journalists, like Irfan Mehraj, Asif Sultan, Sajad Gul, Fahad Shah, Gowhar Gilani, etc
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