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India slams Amnesty over Nadimarg killings
H S Rao in London |
March 28, 2003 00:47 IST
India on Thursday slammed Amnesty International for not condemning the recent massacre of 24 Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir.
"We would have hoped that Amnesty would, at least in a case as black and white as the Nadimarg massacre, summon the strength to issue an explicit condemnation of terrorism," the spokesman at the Indian high commission in Britain, Navdeep Suri, said.
"What we see, instead, is a curious attempt to obfuscate by first dwelling on the fact that the terrorists wore army fatigues and then trying to establish some bizarre form of moral equivalence between the actions of terrorists, the plight of victims and the responsibilities of government authorities.
"The governments of Britain, France, the US and several other countries had no hesitation in condemning this outrageous act of terrorism and Amnesty's reluctance to do the same is certainly mystifying," he said.
In a release on March 24, Amnesty condemned "the unlawful killing by unidentified gunmen of 24 civilians in Nadimarg village in Jammu and Kashmir".
"All sides must safeguard the lives of civilians in Jammu and Kashmir," it said, adding, "international humanitarian law prohibits deliberate attacks on civilians and those not taking direct part in hostilities. It is as yet unclear who is responsible, but we wholeheartedly condemn this attack."
Referring to the release, Suri said, "It only further erodes its [Amnesty's] credibility. Over the last few months, we have observed a pattern of reporting that can only be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to project events in a manner that suits Amnesty's own version of reality."
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