StandWithKashmir Statement on UAE’s decision to award Modi highest civilian award, days after Genocide Watch issues Kashmir alert

The United Arab Emirates’ decision to go ahead with ​awarding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi its highest civilian award on Saturday is a slap in the face to the people of Kashmir who continue to live under a communication and military lockdown that began on August 4.

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The UAE’s decision is particularly chilling given that on August 15, Genocide Watch, an organization that works to predict and prevent genocide, issued a Kashmir alert, calling “upon the United Nations and its members to warn India not to commit genocide in Kashmir.” The organization stated the ​“Ten Stages of the genocidal process” as “far advanced” in Kashmir​.

This award also solidifies the UAE’s position as a country that has no interest in human rights and that condones injustice and oppression.

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Stand with Kashmir calls on the international community to condemn the slide towards authoritarianism, the rise of Hindu-nationalism and the persecution of minorities in India. Failing to do so only gives legitimacy to the belligerent actions of the Indian state.

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For the past 20 days, more than 7 million people have been under siege in Kashmir. Telephone and internet services have been ​disconnected​, local media has been shut down, movement is restricted; at least 2,000 activists, politicians and even ​children​ have been arrested and detained; and tens of thousands of Indian troops continue to patrol the streets of towns and villages.”

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Stand with Kashmir is a Kashmiri diaspora-led international solidarity movement that seeks to end the occupation and support the right to Kashmiri self-determination.

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Contact: ​media@standwithkashmir.org