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In a right of reply at the UNHRC in Geneva, Pakistan questions India’s unabated atrocities on defenseless Kashmiris. PHOTO: REUTERS
UNITED NATIONS:
As UN member states begin preparations to draft an international treaty aimed at preventing crimes against humanity, Pakistan on Tuesday drew attention to the crimes committed against innocent people in occupied Kashmir and Palestine.
“Crimes against humanity is one of the most serious crimes,” Pakistani delegate Zulfiqar Ali told a meeting of the preparatory committee for the UN Conference on the Prevention and Punishment of Such Crimes.
“No action is more sacrilegious than committing criminal acts against innocent people,” he pointed out.
“It is with great sadness and indignation that we see these crimes committed against the innocent people in various parts of the world, including in the Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” said Zulfiqar Ali, a First Secretary in the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations.
“Instead of addressing historical injustices meted out to the oppressed peoples, their dreams and hopes for a dignified future are being trampled by brute force and violence,” he added.
Pakistan, Ali said, unequivocally condemns these crimes and supported the calls to end impunity for them.
“Indeed, it is only by holding the perpetrators accountable that we can take a meaningful and concrete step to restore the honor and dignity of the victims.”
He described the International Law Commission’s draft articles of the treaty as a “useful starting point”, but stressed that those on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity – specifically for crimes such as slavery, torture and enforced disappearance – must be aligned with those enshrined in the corresponding UN conventions.
Pakistan, he added, hopes that the Preparatory Committee will be able to harmonize different perspectives to ensure that the upcoming convention is widely embraced by the international community, especially states that are not parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The sharp remarks of the Pakistani delegate on the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir elicited a response from an Indian representative.
Luther Rangerji, Legal Adviser in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, argued that Pakistan has no locus standi on Kashmir, saying it is a part of India.
He also claimed that Pakistan is using the Jammu and Kashmir issue to divert attention from its treatment of minorities.
Zulifiqar Ali, the Pakistani delegate, hit back, saying India was violating Pakistan’s sovereignty by targeting civilians, including children blinded by pellet guns. New Delhi also fails to implement Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir and violates the Indus Water Treaty.
“The world does not need lectures on crimes against humanity from a country that is a serial violator of international law and the UN Charter and perpetrator of atrocity crimes – in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, against minorities in India, against civilians it targets through the sponsorship of cross-border terrorist attacks.”
India, he said, collaborates with terrorist organizations to subvert and spread chaos in its neighboring countries and conducts international assassination campaigns against political dissidents with impunity.
“Due to an unholy nexus between extremist Hindutva ideology and the ruling elite, Indian minorities, especially Muslims, face an imminent threat of ghettoization.”
Rejecting the claim that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India, he said the state is a disputed territory under UN Security Council resolutions pending a final settlement.
“The right to self-determination is the birthright of Kashmiris under the UN Charter – a right that India solemnly promised to Kashmiris and yet stubbornly denies in flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions.”
Pakistan, he said, will continue to extend political and moral support to the freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people and call for a UN-supervised referendum in Jammu and Kashmir.
