India should move UN to halt Israel-Lebanon war

Kochi, Jul 24 (UNI) Noted jurist Justice V R Krishna Iyer today urged the centre to take the initiative to prod the United Nations to halt the ''terrible carnage'' involving Israel and Lebanon.

In a statement here, he said the two nations were at war and a terrible carnage continues, ''largely at the instance of Israel, which dare not venture on such a diabolic attack without the backing of the US and President George Bush.'' Wondering why the United Nations remained ''mute and deaf'' in the face of this ''massive slaughter'', the former Supreme Court judge and human rights activist regretted that India -- which was historically a leader of the non-aligned nations -- had also not protested against the unjust war.

He said when the US had bombed the Lebanon Palace, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had publicly condemned the act as violative of international order.

''What has happened to our power of speech, our cosmic conscience, our international jurisprudence. I plead with the people of India, the political parties with guts and principle and those in power at the Centre and in the states to remind the U N of its duty to speak loud and act now when the world suffers from the declaration of an open war by Israel,'' he added.

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