Council of Indian Muslims (UK)

Council of Indian Muslims – UK (CIM) has urged the British Government to refuse entry to the Chief Minister of Gujarat Mr Narendra Modi who is due to address a large gathering of Hindu extremists at Wembley arena on 17 August 2003.
 
In two different letters addressed to Mr Straw CIM’s Chairman Mr Munaf Zeena has cited various reports, including the one conducted by the British High Commission in New Delhi and India’s own National Commission of Human Rights in which Modi was held responsible for inciting ant-Muslim hatred, as the chief Minister of Gujarat, and ordering police officers not to take any action against Hindu rioters attacking Muslims.
 
More than 2,000 persons were killed, mostly Muslims, during last year’s anti-Muslim riots in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Hindu extremists, connived by the Gujarat Government, organised mass rapes of Muslim women and destroyed Muslims’ properties worth millions of pounds.”
 
In its report the Concerned Citizens’ Tribunal concluded that Modi had “…played active role in instructing senior police personnel and civil administrators that a Hindu reaction was to be expected and this must not be curtailed or controlled.”.
 
According to BBC: “A senior British High Commission official in India who reported on these ‘riots’ to the Foreign Office in London wrote: these pogroms ‘had all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing and that reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims is impossible while the chief minister remains in power.’ And it, ‘far from being spontaneous, was planned, possibly months in advance, carried out by an extremist Hindu organisation with the support of the state government.’” (emphasis added)
 
In a statement issued today Mr Zeena said, “We are surprised and shocked at the Foreign Office’s silence on our requests to refuse Modi entry to the UK. Not only is he responsible for crimes against humanity in Gujarat, he is also a danger to race relations in this country.”
 
Mr Zeena further said, “United Kingdom is party to the Genocide Convention 1957, and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court 1998, that places an obligation to prevent and punish international crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity.  In addition, there are a number of resolutions by the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly generally calling upon all states, to bring to justice those responsible for crimes under international law, including genocide and crimes against humanity.  Legal scholars and experts opine that “the application of international law as part of the law of the land means that, subject to the overriding effect of statute law, rights and duties flowing from rules of customary international law will be recognized and given effect by English courts without the need for any specific act adopting those rules into English law”.(Oppenheim’s International Law, 9th edition)
 
“United Kingdom is thus obligated under international law to ensure that a person against whom there is evidence that they have committed international crimes is subject to tracing, arrest, trial and if found guilty, to punishment, particularly if he is found in UK soil.  Such obligation is even more compelling if victims of the crimes are British citizens —  which is the present case where three members of the Dawood family have been killed.”
 
Mr Zeena said that visas have been revoked in the past, and in view of the serious threat to law and order and community relations in this country, there is no reason why Modi’s visa can not be revoked now.  
 
Mr Zeena urged Muslims and all the fair minded people to come to the picket to be held out side Wembley Arena where Modi is due to address a gathering of Hindu extremists on Sunday 17 August 2003 at 4pm.