Posted on 09/29/2020 10:00:20 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Citing a "reprisal" by the Indian government against its human rights work, Amnesty International said Tuesday that it has been forced to lay off staff and halt operations in India.
In a statement, the watchdog accused India's Hindu nationalist government of "an incessant witch-hunt" against human rights organizations that have revealed wrongdoing by Indian authorities in recent years. Amnesty's latest investigations in India have focused on alleged human rights abuses in India's only Muslim-majority region, Kashmir, as well as on alleged misconduct by Indian police in last February's Delhi riots that killed dozens of mostly Muslim civilians.
The group said its work in India has come to "a grinding halt" after it learned on Sept. 10 that the Indian government froze its bank accounts.
"For a movement that has done nothing but raise its voices against injustice, this latest attack is akin to freezing dissent," Avinash Kumar, executive director of Amnesty International India, said in the statement.
Later Tuesday, the Indian government issued a statement calling Amnesty's claims "unfortunate, exaggerated and far from the truth." It accuses Amnesty of illegally routing money to India through its U.K. branch for several years.
"All the glossy statements about humanitarian work and speaking truth to power are nothing but a ploy to divert attention from their activities which were in clear contravention of laid down Indian laws," the government said.
This is not the first time Indian authorities have taken action against Amnesty International. In 2016, they charged the group with sedition, for holding an event in the southern city of Bengaluru, related to Kashmir.
In 2018, Indian authorities raided Amnesty's Delhi office and froze its bank accounts. They have long accused the group of violating rules on foreign funding, including as far back as 2009, before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party won power nationally.
Amnesty denies any wrongdoing. It has temporarily shut its India operations, and then resumed them, several times in the past.
Amid fears of rising authoritarianism around the world, Tuesday's events put India in the same category as Russia, where Amnesty says its Moscow office was seized by the Russian government in 2016. The group's local director in Turkey has also faced detention and trial.
In September, Amnesty International USA submitted a statement to the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, accusing Indian authorities of harassing journalists during the pandemic, violating Kashmiris' rights and failing to investigate abuses by Delhi police.
The acting secretary-general of Amnesty's worldwide operations, Julie Verhaar, issued a separate statement calling the closure of its India operations an "egregious and shameful act by the Indian Government."
"However, this does not mark the end of our firm commitment to, and engagement in, the struggle for human rights in India," Verhaar was quoted as saying. "We will be working resolutely to determine how Amnesty International can continue to play our part within the human rights movement in India for years to come."
So India didn’t want these commie clowns manipulating their country? Good.
I was under the impression that A.I. had a strict policy of never allowing its organization in a given country to criticize that country - for exactly the purpose of avoiding such problems.
Regards,
They put out a relatively decent movie years ago with only two actors, Alan Rickman and Madeleine Stowe. Closet Land. About an author who writes children’s stories being interrogated by a member of a totalitarian regime. Ironic, given their support Communism.
Amnesty International lost its credibility years ago. It’s extremely selective in its criticisms of nations, always singling out non-leftist nations while letting Communists slide. I’m certain India has abuses and problems, but it would take an organization with more honesty and ethics than Amnesty International to call them out.
They were a little consistent many years ago. They did have the intellectual honesty to put N Korea and Syria at the top.of their shyt list of the worst human rights violators, but that seemed more like “keeping up appearances”.
“We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.“ - Aesop
”I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” - Abraham Lincoln
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