Stop militarisation of South Asia

A workshop in Pune, attended by delegates from several South Asian countries, concluded with a resolve to urge governments in South Asia to stop militarisation of the region.

Twenty delegates from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India attended the workshop organised by National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS) for advocating social justice, human rights and peace in South Asia.

NCAS, along with civil society groups from other countries, is endeavouring to develop strategies to address people’s issues in South Asia.

At the three-day workshop which concluded on Friday, the delegates discussed issues of people’s sovereignty and security. They expressed concern over the militarisation of South Asia and its impact on politicial, socio-economic and cultural rights of the people.

The resolution passed by the delegates stressed on a nuclear weapon-free South Asia.

“Development of nuclear energy plants and weapons must stop. No war pact should be signed between the South Asian countries and visa regimes should be liberalised for common citizens,’’ the South Asian resolution said.

Sheikh Asad Rahman, one of the participants from Pakistan, said  the strategy about how to achieve the resolutions will be planned in next meeting of the delegates.

“We intend to form pressure groups and make alliances to put pressure on the governments to achieve this,’’ he said. Executive director of NCAS, Sehjo Singh said this was the third workshop in a series. The earlier three were held in Nepal and Bangladesh.

A separate youth resolution too was passed at the workshop. They demanded unrestricted mobility of goods and trade between South Asian countries, opportunities for employment, free flow of information and research studies. They also urged for a South Asian youth policy to address unemployment and against the use of youth by fundamentalist forces.

The issue of Jaitapur nuclear plant too was discussed at the workshop and the delegates opposed the formation of any nuclear plant in South Asia.