Naxal Issue: UN refers it as armed conflict, India objects

NEW DELHI: India has taken exception to the inclusion of the Naxal issue under the category of an ``armed conflict’’ in an UN report.

Taking up the matter in the UN, India’s envoy to UN Hardeep Singh Puri told the Security Council that Maoist violence does not fall within the definition of armed conflict under international law.

“At the outset I should make clear that the violence being perpetrated by these groups though completely abhorrent and condemnable, certainly does not make this a zone of armed conflict as defined by international law,” he was quoted as saying.

“We, therefore, cannot accept reporting on these incidents as falling within the mandate of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict,” he said. He also told the UN Security Council that India was taking steps to address the issue. “We strongly condemn these despicable acts of Naxal violence and are fully committed to controlling such diabolical activities,” he said.

The reference to the Naxal issue was made in a UN report on ‘Children and Armed Conflicts’ which was submitted to the UNSC. The report, which is produced by the office of secretary general Ban Ki-moon, highlighted the recruitment and use of children by Maoist in Chhattisgarh. The report said Naxals have admitted that children were used as messengers and informers and also given training to use non-lethal and lethal weapons, including landmines. It further pointed out the Maoists carried out attacks on schools in an effort to destroy government structures and instill fear within the local community.

UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy was quoted as saying that the definition of an armed is contested. “What is an armed conflict is contested,” she said. She added that many countries named in the report claimed they are not in situations of armed conflict.

“What we determine is that there has to be a political dimension to it for an armed conflict,” she said. The countries in the report, according to her, were chosen on the basis that it is a “political conflict with humanitarian consequences for children.”