Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Medical records document torture of Kashmiris Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 20:06:09 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \HD Medical records document torture of Kashmiris \BY THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT SRINAGAR, India SRINAGAR, India - Here in Kashmir's medieval-looking capital, the story of torture and brutality by Indian troops can be read in the faces and medical records of patients at the respected National Institute of Medical Science (NIMS). NIMS' Dr. Javed Rassol pointed out an agonized 22-year-old patient, Ali Mohammad, who had been severely beaten by Indian troops. "After they beat his muscle tissue, [the tissue] undergoes a breakdown. Once this broken muscular tissue gets filtered through the kidneys, it causes a block and leads to a severe renal problem. "Once it is renal failure, total blockage, they can die. It carries a very high mortality rate." Tens of thousands of heavily armed Indian troops have taken up positions in Kashmir since 1989, when fighting in the mountainous state grew serious. In Srinagar, thousands of tiny bunkers have been set up every few hundred yards along the streets. Built of sandbags, rocks and rusty oil barrels and draped with protective netting, they allow nervous Indian troops to continuously train their rifles and machine guns - often with their fingers on the triggers - at intimidated pedestrians and traffic. Mr. Mohammad, the young patient at NIMS, said he had been arrested by Indian troops who had cordoned off an area after an explosion less than a quarter mile from the mosque where he was attending Friday prayers. "Ten to 15 of us were taken and tortured," he said. "I was beaten severely on my buttocks, legs, face and chest. I don't belong to any military group. I am a carpet weaver. I have nothing to do with them. "If I was a militant, I wouldn't have undergone so much torture. I would have handed over any guns because I couldn't stand so much torture. They held me for four hours yelling, 'Show us your gun! Where are the militants! Who are they?' " P.M. Varadarajan, an Oxford law lecturer who is reporting on Kashmir for the Paris-based Federation Internationale des Droits de l'Homme (International Federation of Human Rights), delivered a devastating indictment of the army in an interview. "The Indian security forces in Kashmir make the Guatemalan army of the early 1980s look like merciful angels. No one in the Kashmir Valley, young or old, male or female, is safe from their violence," he said. "If I were a Kashmiri youth, I would take to the gun without a moment's hesitation." Indian officials respond that it is unfair to single out the security forces because both sides are guilty of human rights abuses. They say the rebels have also kidnapped, tortured and assassinated victims - including civilians. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM