Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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UN Hits Back at Indian Media Criticism of Kashmir Human Rights Report

by Lisa Schlein

   GENEVA --

   The U.N. human rights office is criticizing the Indian media, saying it
   is intent on spreading misinformation about the publication last month
   of the first-ever U.N. human rights report on Kashmir.

   Indian media outlets have called the U.N. report fallacious, and
   described it as a nefarious conspiracy and a report authored by the
   Pakistani security service.

   The 49-page report documents mass human rights violations and abuses
   over seven decades of conflict in Indian-administered and
   Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The information was gathered through
   remote monitoring because neither side would grant U.N. investigators
   access to their territories.

   U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville says his agency is
   disappointed that Indian authorities have dismissed the report without
   examining it and without responding to the serious concerns. Instead,
   the report has been denigrated by the government, opposition parties,
   academics and the media, Colville told VOA.

   "There have been some very intelligent and well thought through
   articles, but there also has been this constant stream of -- I would
   say very simplistic and aggressive -- condemning the report out of hand
   without actually looking at what it says. And, in particular, the
   attacks on the credibility of the report and its sources have been kind
   of constant since it came out," he said.

   Colville says critics have ignored the facts of the report, which are
   based on reliable information from reputable civil society
   organizations and the Press Trust of India, and cited in the 388
   footnotes.

   Colville calls the sustained attempts to divert the focus from human
   rights violations on both sides of the Line of Control very disturbing.
   A major aim of the report, he says, was to give a voice to all
   Kashmiris who have been rendered voiceless amid the deep political
   polarization.