WOCIT-2002-1-16
RECOMMENDATION OF URGENT MEASURES
CONCERNING PREVENTION OF INDIAN-PAKISTANI WAR
President of the WOCIT Interim Court
Rikio Kaneko
15 January 2002
My Dear Mr. Prime
Minister of India
Atal Bihari Vajpayee; and
My Dear Mr. Prime
Minister of Pakistan
Pervez Musharraf
1. I, Rikio Kaneko, President of the World Citizens' Interim Court, have the honor to inform you that on March 31, 2000, in Sapporo, Japan, a Preparatory Committee for a World Citizens’ Court (WOCIC) inaugurated the epoch-making WOCIC, which was renamed “World Citizens’ Tribunal” (WOCIT) on the first day January 2002.
2. The WOCIT is a neutral, democratic and international court of justice for Citizens and States throughout the world. In a word, the WOCIT works for all mankind. Not only will 15 specialists in international law take part in the final legal judgments, but also hundreds of thousands of Citizen Judges, recommended by Heads of self-governing communities of the world, can participate in it.
3. At present, the WOCIT is working in its original form as a World Citizens’ Interim Court. It has already received 7 Summary Petitions and several inquiries relating to various international conflicts from various countries in the world.
4. One Petition concerns your countries, and relates to the Kashmir problem. Please, do not be surprised nor offended at the Petition because the WOCIT is a peace-loving judicial organization which is ready to make constant efforts to reconcile the contesting parties peacefully.
5. The first Summary Petition on the Kashmir problem was presented to
the World Citizens’ Interim Court 27 August 2000, and is shown in our Home Page.
(http://www.wocit.org English version→General list of all cases→Case concerning Kashmir)
6. The second Summary Petition on the Kashmir problem was submitted to the Court on 27 September 2000, and is shown also in theHome Page.
7. One common question essential to these Petitions relates to the territorial problem. The differences between the first and the second Summary Petitions consist in the following points:
1) In the first Summary Petition there was only one actor; in the second Summary Petition there are five co-actors now. They have formed an International Neutral Group of Actors (INGA).
2) In the second Summary Petition, sub-title "3" details "URGENT MEASURES" where the co-actors request the Court to deliver Urgent Measures relating to the nuclear problem.
8. The content of the said "URGENT MEASURES" mentioned there is as follows:
Realizing
that if nuclear war happens once, it will bring the greatest irreparable damage
and unhappiness not only to the inhabitants and living things in Kashmir but
also to other people in the world and pollute the serene blue sky, we request
the Interim Court to recommend the following Urgent or Provisional Measures
immediately to parties in contention as provided for in theWOCIC Statute, Chapter 23:
1) not
to use nuclear weapons at any time, in any place and in any situation;
2) to suppress the use of warlike language which suggests the possibility of a resort to nuclear weapons;
3) to stop immediately all preparations for nuclear war, if any;
4) to declare to all the world that one’s own country would not use nuclear weapons first, so long as the other party in contention does not use them.
9. Here, it is necessary to remember an authoritative advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 1996 on the illegality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons. The ICJ replied:
A threat or use of force by means of nuclear weapons that is contrary to Article 2, paragraph 4, of the United Nations Charter and that fails to meet all the requirements of Article 51, is unlawful.(final decision)
Article 2, Paragraph 4 reads as follows: All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
Article 51 stipulates that nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.
10. It was reported (in 2000 before the first recommendation on urgent measures was sent to India and Pakistan) that government officials in the contesting States were apprehensive of or had suggested the possibility of nuclear war.
11. These months politico-military situation is also unstable, still charged with danger. It is natural in modern times that people will react strongly even to the smallest sign that nuclear war might break out, as is shown in the second Summary Petition. Once nuclear war were to break out, we all know that copious tears would flow uncontrolably. We will see not only tears but also a flood of blood, and the killed and injured of countless innocent people.
12. In accordance with the WOCIC Statute, Article 399 and 400, I as President of the World Citizens Court decided,in principle, to comply with the request for Urgent Measures put forward by the co-actors and replied in the following manner to their request:
......1) never to initiate the use of nuclear weapons at any time, in any place and in any situation;
2) to suppress the use of warlike language which suggests the possibility that “ our side” might resort first to nuclear weapons;
3) to stop immediately all preparations for nuclear war, if any;
4) to declare to all the world that one’s own country will not use nuclear weapons first, so long as the other party in contention does not use them.
13. Relating to these Urgent Measures, I, as President of the Interim Court, requested Indian and Pakistani Governments to furnish us with information by 25 January 2001, on the due measures taken by one’s Government. But any of Indian or Pakistani Leaders or officials answered to the Interim Court, although the Court made efforts to reconfirm the reception of the documents on the urgent measures. (see WOCIT Home Page: http://www.wocit.org→English version→General list of all cases→Case concerning Kashmir among India, Pakistan and China)
After the terrorism in New York of 11 September 2001, military tension increased rapidly in and around Afghanistan, news papers and TVs beginning to report a possibility of war. Now if the war breaks out between India and Pakistan, it may lead to the killing and wounding of many people (including women and children) who are quite irresponsible to the war, and it may develop into nuclear war on the miserable result of which we have already described in the second summary petition above-mentioned.
So, we, the INGA, request World Citizens’ Interim Court:
1 to recommend India and Pakistan not to resort to the war unconditionally, not to speak of nuclear war;
2 to recommend to submit issues of fact and law to some neutral and fair organ of international character (including the International Court of Justice) if the two countries are not able to settle the conflict by diplomatic negotiation;
3 to ask the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to make the best efforts individually and in cooperation with each other for the purpose of preventing war between India and Pakistan; and
4 to ask to India and Pakistan to answer to the Interim Court on their measures and readiness in relation with the recommendation by the Interim Court.
15. Military tension in and around Kashmir increased again. A newspaper “THE JAPAN TIMES of 15 December 2001 reported about “an unprecedented guerrilla attack” on Indian Parliament, among others, as follows:
There were clear parallels with a suicide attack on the local assembly
of Jammnu and Kashmir state two months ago, in which 38 people were killed.
At that time, India, under heavy pressure
from Western powers to show restraint, held back from striking at the
Pakistan-based Islamic militants whom it blames for a 12 year revolt against
New Delhi’s rule in Kashmir. […]
The government [of India] took care not to pin blame for the attack immediately
on Kashmir separatists, who have launched a spate of suicide attacks on
Indian security forces in Kashmir.
And Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
was quick to condemn the attack, sending a message of sympathy to Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
But Indian ministers, nonetheless,
ratcheted up their bellicose rhetoric.
“We will liquidate the terrorists and their sponsors, whoever they are,”
Advani said.
Security has been boosted throughout
insurgency-rocked Kashmir “to prevent militants from staging attacks similar to
that on Parliament,” said Rajinder Bhullar, deputy inspector general of India’s
Border Security Force.
Abudul Gani Bhat, the chairman of the
All-Party Hurriyat Conference, Kashmir’s main separatist alliance, said the
attack on Parliament was “highly condemnable, and we are against the killing of
innocents anywhere in the world.”
“We want an investigation of the issue so
that the ugly faces are unmasked forever,” he said […].
16. A newspaper “The Observer” of 30 December 2001 reported as follows:
Tension between the nuclear neighbours has increased sharply since the
attack on India’s parliament on 13 December in which 14 people were killed,
including the five assailants. Both countries have moved troops to their
border.
.....[…] on the border hundreds of villagers fled
to their homes as renewed gunfire broke out.
.../[…]Pakistan banned all Indian cable and satellite news programs and began
withdrawing troops from its western frontier with Afghanistan, where it
had deployed several extra battalions to deal with the conflict there.
[…] Indian officials brushed aside
Musharraf’s proposal for a joint Indian-Pakistani inquiry to establish
responsibility for the New Delhi attack, but said yesterday it would examine
reports of arrests in Pakistan of 50 suspected Islamic militants and
terrorists.
17. Taking into account that the first recommendation of urgent measures has been left unanswered by any contesting party, and that Kashmir situation has been extremely unstable, attended with great danger, especially after the terrorism in New York in September 2001, although sometimes situation changes better or worse; and
in accordance with the WOCIT Statute, Articles 399 and 400,
I, President of the World Citizens’ Interim Court decideto comply, in principle, with the second request for Urgent Measures put forward by the Co-actors and replyto their request in the following manner:
1) never to initiate war and the use of nuclear weapons at any time, in any place and in any situation;
2) to suppress the use of warlike language which suggests the possibility that "our side" might resort first to war and nuclear weapons;
3) to stop immediately all preparations for conventional war as well as nuclear war, if any; and
4) to declare immediately to all the world that one’s own country will never use nuclear weapons first, so long as the other party does not use them.
...18. Relating to these second Urgent Measures, I as a President of the Interim
Court request Indian and Pakistani Governments to furnish us with information
by 25 February 2002, on the due measures taken by one’s Government.
.........19. As you understand well, My Dear Leaders of State, the request which
I as President of the Court make for Urgent Measures has no legal binding
force. The present request is “advice” according to THE STATUTE OF THE
WORLD CITIZENS' TRIBUNAL, Chapter 23.
..20. Written in English in Sapporo, 13 January 2000, in 8 copies, two of which will be sent to you the third will be placed in the archives of the Court, another transmitted to the Secretary of the United Nations, and the other copies to the Judges of the Interim Court.
21 E-mails having the same content will also be sent to them if they have open e-mail addresses. All the present documents will be made public by our Home Page.
22. When other Judges of the Interim Court agree to the present document, it may be sent, with necessary qualifications, as “Provisional Measures” to the above-mentioned persons.
23. The WOCIT will always welcome Indian and Pakistani National Judges who may sit in the Courts of the WOCIT and have equal rights with other Judges.
24. Lastly, I would like to express my earnest wish, Dear Leaders, that people may live peacefully in India and Pakistan through out the new century.
P.S.1. My Dear Leaders of State, I would sincerely ask both of you to make efforts to settle the Kashmir problem not by force but by such peaceful means as negotiation, good offices, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement or other means to which both of your States agree. (see the Charter of the United Nations, Article 33.)
2. As I have said, the WOCIT will not resort to judicial methods at the beginning. For the first stage of its activities, the WOCIT much prefers to help both States settle this problem. (see the WOCIT STATUTE, Chapters 26 and 27)
4. If neither of your States is able to settle the Kashmir problem peacefully by any means, including help from the WOCIT and the time passes in vain, then the WOCIT Court will begin its judicial proceedings.
5. The WOCIT is always ready to cooperate with you for peace. I earnestly wish, My Dear Leaders of State, that you will both cooperate with the WOCIT in settling the Kashmir problems, not by force but by peaceful means.
6. The WOCIT procedures will be conducted, among others, with frequent additions of information to the WOCIT HP (Home Page). At any time you may send your answer or opinion by WOCIT e-mail address:registrar@wocit.org
7. In the next ATTACHMENT in the following pages you can see the second request on Urgent Measures presented by co-actors of the present case.
Yours most sincerely.
ATTACHMENT
10 January 2002
Co-actors
Mr.
Peaceful V.№2
Mr. Peaceful T.№3.
Mr. Peaceful S.№4.
Ms.
Peaceful T.№5
(who joined the INGA
10 January 2002)
In the second neutral summary petition dated 27 September, we, the INGA requested the Interim Court to recommend Urgent or Provisional Measures immediately to parties in contention India and Pakistan not to use nuclear weapons at any time, in any place or in any situation.
On the 5 December, in principle, in accordance with our request the Interim Court recommended the Heads of State of India and Pakistan not to use nuclear weapons in the politico-military confrontation between them.
After the terrorism in New York of 11 September 2001, military tension increased rapidly in and around Afghanistan, news papers and TVs beginning to report a possibility of war. Now if the war breaks out between India and Pakistan, it may lead to the killing and wounding of many people (including women and children) who are quite irresponsible to the war, and it may develop into nuclear war on the miserable result of which we have already described in the second summary petition above-mentioned.
So, we the INGA request
World Citizens’ Interim Court:
1 to recommend India and Pakistan not to resort to
the war unconditionally, not to speak of nuclear war;
2 to recommend to submit issues of fact and law to some neutral and fair organ of international character (including the International Court of Justice) if the two countries are not able to settle the conflict by diplomatic negotiation;
3 to ask the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to make the best efforts individually and in cooperation with each other for the purpose of preventing war between India and Pakistan; and
4 to ask to Pakistan and India to answer to the Interim Court on their readiness and measures taken in relation with the recommendation by the Interim Court.
Concluded.