Washington, July 29 (KMS): The ninth International Kashmir Peace Conference will be held at the Capitol Hill in Washington DC on July 31st and August 1st 2008.

The conference is being jointly organised by Kashmir Centre Washington and the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers.

The Executive Director of Kashmir Centre, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai said in a statement in Washington that the primary objective of this conference is to explore various possibilities to set a stage for the settlement of the Kashmir dispute. He maintained that the international community is upholding the principle position, which it has sustained throughout the existence of the contentious issue relating to the status of Kashmir.  However, he added, it is a cause of the deepest anxiety for us that the urgency of settling the dispute is getting scant multilateral recognition and as a result of this, no genuine negotiations have yet been held to arrive at a just and lasting solution. 

Dr Fai said that Kashmiris welcome the talks between India and Pakistan and hoped that the two governments fully recognize that there can be no peaceful negotiated settlement without the full and active participation of the Kashmiris living on both sides of the Line of Control as well as those belonging to the Kashmiri Diaspora.

Those who have been invited to speak in the conference include among others leaders of both sides of the LoC and Pakistan, prominent intellectuals and journalists.