Prof. Gul Mohammad Wani of Kashmir University and Shujaat Bukhari, senior journalist based in Srinagar talk about the response of the Indian state over the past year following widespread protests in the Kashmir valley featuring youth pelting stones at security establishments. They identify a major trust deficit among Kashmiris about the Indian state and suggest that the Indian state should work towards overcoming the deep alienation by addressing issues related to human rights violations. The promising headway in working toward a political solution in the mid 2000s by engaging with Pakistan and other political actors in Kashmir should be used as a reference point as work is done to come to a "final political solution in Kashmir".

  Ahilan Kadirgamar, spokesperson of the Sri Lanka Democracy Forum, suggests that the Tamil National Alliance's victory combined with international pressure after the Channel 4 Documentary and the UN Special Panel Report have brought upon added impetus for the Sri Lankan government to proceed with steps towards a "political solution" in that country. The peoples' mandate in the Northern Province in the local body elections held there in July this year, were clearly a rebuff to the Rajapaksa regime's efforts to limit the discourse to "development".