During a skirmish between the envoys of the United States and China in the general debate at the United Nations Human Rights Council this week, the Saudi envoy sided with Beijing and locked horns with Washington. So did Pakistan and a host of other countries.
Iran remained silent.
The colourful anti-clerical Iranian opposition groups that used to enrich the international s scene on the sidelines of UNHRC in Geneva until last year have disappeared this year. Has their financial support dried up? Nobody knows. They have been replaced by NGOs promoting a new positive image of Iran. For example, this week, one NGO held an event on Iran’s positive treatment of women, minorities and the progress in the lives of Iranian Sunni Baloch. The presentations were impressive and convincing.
The other area where change is noticeable is the mushrooming of NGOs attacking Iran’s traditional political competition in the region: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and more recently Malaysia. Pakistan is in this list with repeated side panel discussions organised this week by apparently Iran-linked NGOs to assail the treatment of Shia minorities in these countries. This year, there is a sharp focus on Pakistan and Malaysia. At least one event has been organised on this topic outside the UN building and two inside, with paid guests flown in from both countries to speak and criticise their governments.
Though the criticism of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Malaysia and sometimes Egypt is blunt and direct, the criticism on Pakistan by Iran-linked NGOs varies from mild to slightly harsh, but at all times calibrated. Last week, when a couple of questioners asked a female Pakistani speaker to name Pakistani government and military as alleged supporters of terror groups that attack Pakistani Shia citizens, the speaker refused to be drawn into a debate. “I will only talk about the cases in front of me and the groups involved,” she said. ‘I have no evidence on the involvement of Pakistani government or military.”
The fact that Iran-linked groups are organising seminars inside the UN building putting Pakistan on trial for the human rights situation in the country could at some point irk Islamabad, which has so far unreservedly extended diplomatic and political support to Tehran inside and outside the UN.
Malaysia, by comparison, is not that recalcitrant. Azhaan Hamid, a member of a Malaysian NGO, explained there is no restriction on the practice of Shia Muslim sect in his country. “We welcome all Muslims.
We traditionally never had Shia Muslim presence. But now one country is paying money to create presence for political purposes, not religious,” he said, without naming Iran.The subject is sensitive and difficult to probe because it involves religious sensibilities. But here the issue is political, where states are involved with their strategic interests, exploiting religion. During another sideline event on Iraq, a speaker called on all Muslim states to stop using sects to further strategic interests.
Mehdi al-Katib, from the al-Khoei Foundation, named after the revered Iraqi Shia scholar whose disciples are spread in many countries including Pakistan, agrees. “I agree with the argument. Muslim states should not use sects as a tool of politics or strategy.”
For the first time this year, a young man has been seen at different panel discussions claiming to represent Pakistani Hazaras.Though the plight of our Hazaras is real and indescribable, the young man appeared to be politicising it, and offered anti-Pakistan lobbies to take up the topic of Pakistani government allegedly condoning attacks on its citizens who follow the Shia sect. Interestingly, Alessandro Monsutti, an anthropologist with The Graduate Institute in Geneva, was in the audience. He intervened to correct the record. He said Pakistan’s Hazaras were accepted wholeheartedly into the Pakistani fabric since 1947, and produced national heroes in civil life and in the military, and that the attacks on the community were largely a post-2001 Afghan war development.
Pakistan is preparing to table a resolution against the unchecked use of unmanned drones at UNHRC with wide international support.Pakistan is also pushing the Kashmir dispute with a new vigour. The backlash is visible, with increased activity in Geneva on Balochistan, and the speakers flown in from several countries to speak about the secession of different Pakistani provinces. While Islamabad understands this backlash, the entry of the sectarian element is a new development, and a disturbing one.
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