India abstains on resolution suspending Russia from un Human Rights Council
Darpan News Desk IANS, 07 Apr, 2022 11:26 AM
United Nations, April 7 (IANS) India abstained on a General Assembly resolution that was passed on Thursday suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.
Permanent Representative T.S. Tirumurti said after the vote: "If India has chosen any side, it is the side of peace and it is for an immediate end to violence."
He said of the abstention, "We do so for reasons of both substance and process."
He said that India abstained because it had reservations about how "due process" was applied to the resolution, while it "unequivocally condemned" the killings in Bucha in Ukraine, which was the impetus for the resolution.
"We firmly believe that all decisions should be taken fully respecting due process, as all our democratic polity and structures enjoin us to do. This applies to international organisations as well, particularly the United Nations," he said after the vote.
He said that India, which is a member of the 47-member Council, has unequivocally condemned the killings of civilians in Ukraine and supported the call for an independent investigation.
This was the eighth abstention at the UN by India on a matter involving the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Thursday's abstention by India was a defiance of Russia, which threatened those abstaining.
The adoption of the resolution with 93 votes giving it a two-thirds majority marked a big diplomatic win for the US and its allies.
The impetus for the resolution was images of atrocities against and killings of civilians in Bucha after Russian troops withdrew.
Twenty-four countries voted against it and 58 abstained.
On March 24, the General Assembly passed a resolution condemning Russia's invasion; India abstained on it.
High-stakes diplomacy preceded the voting on the latest resolution by both the West and Russia.
Russia threatened countries abstaining on the resolution will face consequences.
The Russian Mission circulated a note warning that Moscow will consider abstaining or absenting an "unfriendly" act that it will take into account in "the development of bilateral relations".
Many of the countries that abstained said that it was because it was premature to suspend Russia before an inquiry into the atrocities ordered by the Council was complete.
South Africa said that the resolution was prejudging the outcome of the commission of inquiry while "we are awaiting findings from the allegations of gross violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law".
The last suspension of a member of the Council was in 2011 when the Assembly voted to temporarily remove Libya.
The Council includes several members like China, Eritrea and Sudan, which have been accused of serious human rights violations.
Former President Donald Trump withdrew US from the Council in 2018, with the US Permanent Representative Nikki Haley saying that it makes a "mockery of human rights".
President Joe Biden brought the US back to the Council and it was elected a member last year for a three-year term.
The US had boycotted the Council for its first three years after it was founded in 2006.
Over 700 Indian students are stuck in Sumy and they are running out of basic necessities like food and water and they have been urging the Indian government to get them evacuated from there.
Over 7,400 Indian nationals are expected to be evacuated under the 'Operation Ganga' in the next two days, the government said on Thursday. The Centre has initiated an airlift operation to evacuate Indians, who have found their way to the neighbouring countries of war-torn Ukraine.
This advisory, prepared by the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, warns about aerial raids, missile attacks, artillery shelling, small arms and gunfire, grenade explosions and 'Molotov cocktails', including by local people/militia.
The flight IX-1202 with 183 passengers, including an infant, arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at around 5.40 a.m. The evacuees were received by Union Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve-Patil with flowers and words of solace as they trooped out lugging their belongings.
"Indian students are being pushed out of trains, they are not allowed to board, if questioned they are being assaulted and guns are being pointed at them,". There are many incidents where Indians were asked to leave bunkers. Ukraninans are telling Indian students that India is not supporting them and why should they help them?
The two leaders reviewed the situation, especially in the city of Kharkiv where many Indian students are stuck, and discussed the safe evacuation of Indian nationals from the conflict areas, an MEA statement said.
