LONDON: The Indian high commission here has described the latest Amnesty International report on the “disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab” as “substantially incorrect” and also ill-timed since the government of India was trying to establish a constructive dialogue with the Amnesty.
The High Commission cutinized the publication of the report says it should have waited till Amnesty’s visit to Punjab which was under discussion, The human rights organization also did not wait for six weeks which was needed for the Government to present its detailed response to the charges. The Amnesty had launched a campaign against India by highlighting one or two specific cases of human rights abuse through full page advertisements in different parts of the world, The Amnesty report on the disappearances speaks of “subversion of legal proceedings and a pattern of cover-ups” which hardly reflected the democratic, legal and judicial system in India. Ironically, the Amnesty derived its anti-India material from the very institutions being sustained by democracy in India and then went on to suggest that these Very institutions were either flawed or nonfunctional.
The report is very critical of Indian Governments condonement of violations of HR and official apathy at answering Amnesty International’s reports in the past.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 24, 1993
