India for impartial probe into Libya war crimes

United Nations, Nov 3: India today (Nov 3) said it expects an "impartial" investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into war crimes committed during the Libyan conflict that punishes both Muammar Gaddafi's troops as well as opposition forces responsible for violence and killings during the uprising.

In a statement at the UN Security Council on Libya, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri said ICC's Prosecutor should not be "influenced by non- judicial considerations" while carrying out his investigation into the crimes committed against humanity in Libya.

"We expect that the ICC Prosecutor will carry out a thorough and impartial investigation into all alleged crimes by all parties to the conflict in Libya.

"The Prosecutor must... focus his attention solely on prosecution without diversion due to extraneous considerations," Puri said. India emphasised that all those responsible for committing crimes in Libya should be held accountable "irrespective of which side of the conflict they may belong to".

"Political or other non-judicial considerations should not exonerate anybody from prosecution for the crimes committed". Puri said the eight month-long conflict in Libya resulted in a large number of deaths and massive destruction. "Proliferation of weapons has emerged as a major problem posing threat to stability in Libya as well as in the larger region," he said.

PTI