The age of innocence

Ghulam Nabi Fai, Director of Kashmir American Council, was recently arrested by US authorities on the grounds that he was an unregistered agent for a foreign government in which capacity he had allegedly received approximately four million dollars from the ISI during the past fifteen odd years. Reportedly, the law invoked for the arrest stipulates that foreign governments “who try to influence the United States using unregistered agents threaten America’s national security.”
I had known Ghulam Nabi Fai in the late ’80s and early ’90s during my tenure at our UN Mission in New York. An American of Kashmiri origin, Fai was a committed advocate of self determination of his people. Even stronger was his commitment to draw attention to the gross violations of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir. He wanted to sensitise the American government and civil society to the wretched plight of the Kashmiris who, at that time, were being subjected to unspeakable atrocities by the Indian security forces. The means he employed were exhibitions, conferences and seminars. Not once did one hear him enjoin violence as a tool for Kashmiri self-determination nor did he ever engage in violent protests. His message and his methods were entirely peaceful. To the best of my information, the substantial Pakistani community in the tri-state area contributed funds for a cause which they all held dear.
If a person of Fai’s disposition and pacifist beliefs is deemed to pose a threat to the US security, it can be said with some assurance that, regardless of how much money is poured into strengthening the department of Homeland Security, the United States will never be safe. On a scale of 10 to 1, Ghulam Nabi Fai, as a security threat, will not even make it to the base number.
Several pertinent questions arise. If Fai had been receiving ISI funds since the mid ’90s why wasn’t he arrested then? Does the law also stipulate that an unregistered agent is not culpable unless he has received a subsidy of at least four million dollars from a foreign government? Surely, the FBI must have been monitoring the payments from the time these were first received. Why arrest him now?
What was the nature of Fai’s mission? As mentioned earlier his main objective was to promote the cause of Kashmiri self-determination in accordance with the resolutions of the Security Council. The Council is the principal organ of the United Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security. Member states are under Charter obligation to ensure respect for and compliance with its decisions. Fai was simply trying to promote adherence to the provisions of the UN Charter to which the US is not just a party but the largest contributor. How does an activity mandated by the Charter of the United Nations become a crime?
Protection of Kashmiri human rights was the other component of his mission. Human rights, we are constantly reminded, are universal and their protection a common responsibility. The onus of preventing infringements of these rights has been placed on the shoulders of the entire international community. Every member state is required to raise its voice against human rights violations wherever these occur. Protection and promotion of human rights was considered so pivotal to advancing the Principles of the UN Charter that a separate body, The Human Rights Commission, supported by a vast administrative infrastructure, was set up to monitor and rectify violations.
The Commission (now Council) meets in Geneva for over a month, every year, to consider the human rights situation around the world. Incontrovertible evidence of the dismal state of human rights in Kashmir is available in abundance, collected by reputable international agencies and fair minded people within India itself. Not once, since its inception, has this body ever deemed it necessary to institutionally reflect on the human rights situation in Kashmir. This so-called “conscience of mankind” operates on thoroughly unconscionable principles; crass vested interests being the foremost.
In trying to mobilise public opinion in the United States and elsewhere against human rights violations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Fai was fulfilling a Charter responsibility. He was doing what the statute of the Human Rights Council enjoins upon every individual, community and nation; stand up against violations of the rights of fellow men.
For nearly twenty years, these activities were not considered a threat to the security of the United States. Now they are. Undeniably, the US is a sovereign state and is perfectly within its legal right to declare any one of its citizens a security threat even if he is engaged in promoting those very principles which comprise the bedrock of the Constitution of the United States, principles which are not just a source of pride for the American people but for the whole of mankind: “We hold these truths to be self evident….”

The writer is a retired Ambassador and can be contacted at [email protected]