-Urges world to prevent judicial murder of detained Andrabi
-India has violated UNSC resolutions, Charter principles, says Akram
By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister of Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari has called out the Indian government for committing war crimes by moving prisoners from occupied Kashmir to India and violating the Geneva Convention through ill-treatment of women prisoners.
Addressing a press briefing alongside Asiya Andrabi’s son, Mazari said the Narendra Modi government has violated Article 76 and 83 of the Geneva Convention by moving the Kashmiri activist to Tihar jail in New Delhi.
It may be noted here that the Foreign Office said in a recent statement that Asiya Andrabi may be convicted on January 18.“Article 76 says that women shall be confined in separate quarters and shall be under the direct supervision of women… and the detainees have the right to be visited by the Red Cross but Indian authorities don’t even provide doctors,” said Mazari. “Andrabi and two other women with her are unwell but the Indian government is denying her medical assistance.”
The human rights minister asserted that the Indian government was violating international laws and called upon international community and local and international human rights organisations to condemn the actions. Mazari said the Indian government is committing war crimes by moving Kashmiri prisoners to and from Indian jails.She was referring to Article 8 (war crimes) of the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court which states that the “transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory”.
The minister said Pakistan should demand an international tribunal to proceed against India regarding war crimes. “In 2005, all countries at the United Nations accepted the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in principle. There are laws present. So the question is: why is the world silent? Is it our failure that we are unable to make a strong case or are countries avoiding taking on India due to economic interests?”
Mazari said that sentencing Asiya Andrabi to life imprisonment until death would be nothing short of judicial murder.Earlier, Pakistan had reacted to some tall claims made by India about its role in international affairs in a video released Sunday timed with New Delhi’s assumption of a non-permanent seat on the Security Council, saying it stands in violations of the 15-member body’s resolutions and UN Charter principles. “It’s true colours will be revealed during its 2-year tenure on the Security Council,” Ambassador Munir Akram said of India, when asked by APP to comment on its assertion that India was a voice of reason and votary of international law.
“Indians are all talk,” the Pakistani envoy said, adding, “Let’s see how well they serve the developing countries!” On its part, he said Pakistan is doing this in action Prime Minister Imran Khan’s debt initiative, creation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), 10-point priority financing agenda, halting illicit financial flows from developing countries and sustainable infrastructure investment facility.
Those initiatives, he added, came from Pakistan.
“What has India done?,” Ambassador Akram asked, pointing out that it opposed new SDRs and wider and longer debt suspension in the G20 (industrialized countries) discussions.
“It (India) has not opposed sanctions against Iran or US unilateral coercive measures against other developing countries,” the Pakistani envoy added.
“It’s proposals on U.N.Security Council reforms are undemocratic and self-serving, aiming to secure permanent membership of the Security Council and other advantages for itself,” he said.
Right to Self Determination: All is set by Jammu & Kashmir people living both sides of the line of control and rest of the world to observe the right of self determination day on
January 5 with the renewal of the pledge to continue their ongoing struggle for freedom of the motherland from Indian clutches, with full vigor till the achievement of their legitimate right of self determination through implementation of the U.N resolutions.
The day is being observed every year by Jammu & Kashmir people to invite the attention of international community and the United Nations towards the early grant of right to self determination to Kashmir through implementation of the historic resolutions on Kashmir passed this day (January 5) in 1949 by the Security Council of the UNO.
Adequate preparations have been made in Azad Jammu Kashmir to observe the day to be followed by the public rallies, besides special gatherings and processions, in all ten district headquarters of the liberated territory as the hallmark of the day.
The special meetings would highlight the importance of early grant of the right of self determination to Jammu Kashmir people – which was being suppressed and denied by India since over last seven decades.
