Pakistan urges better protection of civilians in armed conflict; no immunity for int’l law violators

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has called for reinforcing the concept of protection of civilians and accountability in all situations of armed conflict, including in Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir, saying there should be no impunity for violators of international law.

“The goal of protection of civilians is best served by preventing the outbreak of an armed conflict in the first place,” Ambassador Munir Akram said in a statement submitted to the United Nations Security Council which held an open debate on Tuesday on keeping civilians free from harm in an armed conflict situation.

In this regard, the Pakistani envoy urged the 15-member Council, the world body’s power centre, to address the root causes of emerging and long-standing conflicts, including Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir, and promote just and peaceful solutions.

He said India’s illegal actions since August 5, 2019 to impose what its leaders have called a “final solution” for occupied Kashmir constitute grave violations of Security Council resolutions and international law.

These actions include: “cordon and search” operations and fake “encounters” to extra-judicially kill Kashmiri youth; indiscriminate use of live ammunition against peaceful protestors, including “pellet guns”; collective punishments to destroy entire Kashmiri neighborhoods; arbitrary detention of Kashmiri political leaders, and thousands of young boys on trumped up charges; targeting of civilians in ceasefire violations along the Line of Control in Kashmir, and forcible seizure of Kashmiri land and efforts to change the demography of the disputed state and transform it from Muslim-majority State to a Hindu-majority territory.

“Those responsible for such grave and consistent breaches of human rights and international humanitarian laws in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) must be held accountable,” Ambassador Akram said.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “neither the resolutions of the Security Council, nor the UN’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy, provide credible means of offering either protection or justice to civilian victims of terrorism or state terrorism.”

Pakistan has been a principal victim of externally sponsored terrorism, having lost nearly 80,000 civilians and security forces in the fight against the menace. terrorism. Pakistan, he added, conducted well planned campaigns to root out terrorists operating from its soil, but still continue to face cross-border terrorism sponsored by adversaries.

“The Security Council resolutions on counter terrorism do not authorize the use of force on the territory of other states without the express authorization of the Security Council,” the Pakistani envoy said, adding: “Nor do they justify compromising the requirement for proportionality in the use of force.”

He called for accountability for civilian casualties caused as “collateral damage” by indiscriminate use of force.

“As an occupying power, Israel has no right of self-defense under international law,” he said, adding that its use force against the occupied and besieged Palestinians was illegal. “On the contrary,”, the Pakistani envoy added, “it is the Palestinian people who have the right to struggle ‘by all possible means’ to secure freedom from foreign occupation”.

False equivalence between the occupier and the occupied is morally and legally untenable, he said, noting that it had given Israel the sense of impunity to use indiscriminate and disproportionate force, including the aerial bombing of Gaza, resulting in the death of over 200 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children.

“Such attacks amount to ‘collective punishment’ of civilians and constitute grave violations of international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions.

“There should be no impunity for such violations,” Ambassador Akram added.