Karachi: For the past many years, China has continued to place a ‘technical hold’ in the United Nations against the imposition of sanctions on some alleged Pakistani militants on the ground that India has failed to provide sufficient information to merit such an action.
According to leaked diplomatic cables of the US embassy in Beijing, from June 25, 2009, to January 20, 2010, the United States desperately tried to influence China to lift the technical hold, but failed because sufficient information was not coming from India.
The cables quoted a Chinese official, as saying that China “is very serious” about its commitments to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267, but without adequate information on “these three individuals”, it would not lift the hold.
The individuals whom India wanted to be listed as ‘terrorist’ include Maulana Masood Azhar of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Abdur Rehman Makki and Azam Cheema of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Chinese official Shen Yinyin was quoted in an August 21, 2009 cable, as telling the political officer of the US embassy that India had not provided sufficient information about Azhar, Makki and Azam Cheema, to merit their listing as terrorists.
To ask China to lift its ‘technical hold’ to block imposition of sanctions against those alleged terrorists, the US provided some more information, but apparently failed to convince the Chinese officials.
According to another cable obtained by Dawn through whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, the US State Department viewed China as acting at the behest of Pakistan in holding the designations.
Karachi: For the past many years, China has continued to place a ‘technical hold’ in the United Nations against the imposition of sanctions on some alleged Pakistani militants on the ground that India has failed to provide sufficient information to merit such an action.
According to leaked diplomatic cables of the US embassy in Beijing, from June 25, 2009, to January 20, 2010, the United States desperately tried to influence China to lift the technical hold, but failed because sufficient information was not coming from India.
The cables quoted a Chinese official, as saying that China “is very serious” about its commitments to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267, but without adequate information on “these three individuals”, it would not lift the hold.
The individuals whom India wanted to be listed as ‘terrorist’ include Maulana Masood Azhar of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Abdur Rehman Makki and Azam Cheema of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Chinese official Shen Yinyin was quoted in an August 21, 2009 cable, as telling the political officer of the US embassy that India had not provided sufficient information about Azhar, Makki and Azam Cheema, to merit their listing as terrorists.
To ask China to lift its ‘technical hold’ to block imposition of sanctions against those alleged terrorists, the US provided some more information, but apparently failed to convince the Chinese officials.
According to another cable obtained by Dawn through whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, the US State Department viewed China as acting at the behest of Pakistan in holding the designations.
The December 30, 2009 cable, sent in the name of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had alleged that “on the international stage, Pakistan has sought to block the UNSCR 1267 listings of Pakistan-based or affiliated terrorists by requesting that China places a hold on the nominations.”
The UNSC Resolution 1267 asks member countries to impose sanctions against people who are listed as terrorists.
The member countries of the Security Council, which wield a veto are empowered to block the listing. China, being one of them, blocked the listing of these alleged militants, repeatedly asking India to provide more information about them to enable it to lift the technical hold.
ANI
