Islamabad admin stalls ICTA public hearing on war crimes

Staff Report

PESHAWAR: The Islamabad administration has refused to allow representatives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan (ICTA) to hold a public hearing on war crimes in Afghanistan.

The ICTA, a Japanese-based private organization, was going to hold a public hearing at an Islamabad five-star hotel on Wednesday morning to record war crimes in Afghanistan to expose wrongdoings by American-coalition forces. But the deputy commissioner declined permission.

“We are disappointed at denial by Pakistani officials,” said ICTA Co-representative, Professor Akira Maeda, while addressing a news conference here. Representatives of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) were also present during the conference as it is collaborating with the ICTA on war crimes.

Mr Maeda, a peace activist and professor at Tokyo University, said the tribunal was constituted in October 2002 aimed at making public the war crimes reported in the Afghan war.

He told reporters the American-led attack on Afghanistan was a violation of international law and aggression from historical viewpoint. He said that the American action in the aftermath of 9/11 incident was illogical, as the matter was not thoroughly investigated and the questions created in people’s minds still remained unresolved.

Mr Maeda said the ICTA executive committee had already sent investigating teams to Afghanistan five times to probe war crimes, adding the surveys started from refugee camps in Pakistan and later extended to Kabul, Kundoz and Mazar-e-Sharif in collaboration with RAWA. Mr Maeda said ICTA public hearings were aimed at exposing the war crimes in Afghanistan and stopping them from committing such crimes in the future, forcing them to compensate war victims and restoring peace.

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