Senior separatist leaders welcomed the reported announcement of appointment of former US President Bill Clinton as ‘special observer’ on Kashmir, by US President-elect, Barrack Obama. Chairman Hurriyat Conference (G), Syed Ali Shah Geelani stated that if the US was serious about the issue, hurdles in the way of resolution of the Kashmir issue would be removed to a great extent. Geelani also hoped that the Kashmir issue would become a priority of the new administration and hoped that the United States’ anti-Muslim policy would change. Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq stated that the statement by Obama was encouraging and that the changing political scenario in the world had forced the international community to pay attention towards the resolution of Kashmir issue1.

Meanwhile, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that it treats Kashmiri Pandit migrants as ‘internally displaced persons’, a status the community has been demanding for long. This was in response to a memorandum submitted by a Kashmiri Pandit group ‘Roots In Kashmir’ (RIK), which urged the world body to take the plight of Kashmiri Pandits who had to leave their homes in the Kashmir Valley. The RIK stated that even 19 years after the mass exodus, over 50,000 Kashmiri Pandit refugees were “living in pathetic conditions in uninhabitable refugee camps" and that the successive Indian central and state Governments had failed to protect their rights. The UNHCR however added that its mandate was to work for refugees "in some countries, on invitation by sovereign governments, with internally displaced populations2."

• 1. “Separatists welcome Obama's victory, pin hopes on Clinton,” Kashmir Times, November 7, 2008, at http://kashmirtimes.com/jktoday.htm
• 2. “UNHCR treats KPs as IDPs,” Daily Excelsior, November 4, 2008, at http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/08nov04/news1.htm#4