UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights hasrejected Indian allegations against its report on the human rights abusesby Indian security forces in Kashmir, saying the campaign against it was anattempt to divert the focus away from the serious situation there.
“Since the report was published, we have been deeply disappointed by thereaction of the Indian authorities, who dismissed the report as‘fallacious, tendentious and motivated’ without examining it and respondingto the very serious concerns about the human rights situation” in Indianoccupied Kashmir, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for UN rights chief said ina statement in Geneva on Monday.
“The UN Human Rights Office has a global mandate and works independently,with a well-established methodology, in its public reporting,” thestatement said.
“Ultimately, our goal in drafting this report was to assist the States andothers to identify and address human rights challenges and to give a voiceto all Kashmiris who have been rendered voiceless amid the deep politicalpolarization.“This is not about politics. It is about the human rights of millions ofpeople in Kashmir. And we will continue to try to engage with Indian andPakistani authorities on this and other important human rights issues, andpress for access to both Indian-administered Kashmir andPakistan-administered Kashmir.” Spokesman Coville added.
The first-ever UN report on rights violation in the disputed state wasreleased last month and it focused mainly on Indian occupied Kashmir,citing a number of instances of grave human rights violations.
The spokesman referred to Indian media outlets’ accusations against thereport calling it “Nefarious conspiracy,” “Pakistan-authored report”,“fallacious”, “mala fide”, and said the report was developed through remotemonitoring, after not being allowed unconditional access to the region.
The statement said, “In recent days, a surprising number of Indian mediaorganizations have seized unquestioningly upon a claim by someone reportedto be a Canada-based imam of Pakistani descent, named Zafar Bangash, thatthe High Commissioner was in constant contact with him, with the inferencebeing that Mr Bangash influenced the content of the report. This is totallyuntrue. The High Commissioner has never spoken with Mr Bangash, and we arenot aware of receiving any information from him, let alone using it,although it is possible he sent an email or letter and received a politeacknowledgment, as is the case with thousands of letters and emails sent tothe Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.”
Responding to such allegation, the report added, “The report contains 388footnotes that detail all the sources that were used: these includeofficial sources such as the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha “ India’s parliament” as well as the Supreme Court of India, the Ministry of External Affairs,the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, the Jammu and Kashmir StateHuman Rights Commission, the Union Ministry of Defence, the Chief of ArmyStaff and even a former Vice President. Accusations that we used unverifiedinformation are thus rather puzzling. The report also draws on reliableinformation from reputable civil society organizations and the Press Trustof India, and these are all clearly cited in the footnotes. – APP