NEW DELHI, 27 July 2006 — India yesterday condemned Israel’s “disproportionate and excessive use of force” in Lebanon but at the same time criticized Hezbollah for kidnapping two Israeli soldiers. Junior Foreign Minister Anand Sharma in a statement to Parliament demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities, saying Lebanon had become a “victim by default.” His comments came in response to criticism from the Congress-led government’s Communist allies that New Delhi had not reacted to Israel’s bombardment and raids on Lebanon.
The issue was raised in the lower house of Parliament by Communist Party of India leader Basudeb Acharia, who described the Israeli blitz as “a full-scale assault” in “brazen violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions.” In a statement on July 13, the Indian Foreign Ministry had called on Israel and Lebanon to “eschew violence, de-escalate the situation, and return to the path of negotiations.”
“India condemns the abduction of two Israeli soldiers ... by Lebanese militants and calls for their immediate release,” the Foreign Ministry statement said. “We equally strongly condemn the excessive and disproportionate military retaliation by Israel which has targeted civilian infrastructure,” it said.
Sharma yesterday gave Indian lawmakers details of the government’s plans to evacuate an estimated 12,000 Indians in Lebanon, mostly unskilled or semi-skilled laborers working in factories, farms and industrial units.
A spokesman for India’s Foreign Ministry said that some 1,500 people including Indians and others from Nepal and Sri Lanka had already been evacuated from conflict-torn Lebanon.
New Delhi had also taken up with Israel’s ambassador to India the death of an Indian glass factory worker killed in Israel’s blistering bombardment of Lebanon, the spokesman said. Israel launched an offensive on July 12 on Lebanon in response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by the Shiite group Hezbollah.
After decades of cold relations and Indian support for the Palestinian movement, India and Israel established diplomatic ties in 1992. Relations have warmed dramatically since 1998 after India’s Hindu extremists took office. Though the Hindu extremists were replaced by a left-leaning Congress-led alliance in elections in May 2004, cooperation is continuing.
India’s junior defense minister said yesterday that an Indian peacekeeper in Lebanon was injured in the deadly Israeli bombing of a UN post, and that New Delhi was considering withdrawing its troops there. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has expressed “deep regrets” to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan over the deaths of four UN observers in the strike, which Israel said was an accident.
“We also have an Indian soldier who was injured,” said Junior Defense Minister Rao Inderjit Singh, after Indian troops reportedly came under fire when they attempted to conduct a rescue mission on the post.
