Is it too late for ICJ?

Laws of war have evolved over the centuries, and countries of the UN are signatories to treaties and conventions that seek to put an end to war crimes and torture even when armed conflict breaks out between states. Alas, such instruments are only baby civilising steps, for the history even of the modern world is littered with examples of torture of combatants that wouldn’t do credit even to the cave-man.

An instance of this is the treatment meted out, post-mortem, to Captain Saurabh Kalia, who was seized in battle by Pakistani troops during the Kargil war in 1999. The young officer was beheaded, and his body was subjected to unspeakably undignified treatment. This had caused strong national resentment at the time but the government had chosen not to take the matter to an international forum. Quite clearly proof would be hard to come by in such cases.

However, reversing its own earlier stand, the Modi government is contemplating taking the matter to the International Court of Justice provided the Supreme Court gives the green signal. It is hard to explain the rationale of this after 16 years have gone by. The statute of limitations kicks in even in the normal course, and this is likely to be a complicated case on account of the burden of obtaining proof in conditions of war. If the idea is to show up Pakistan before the world, enough of that has happened already on account of Islamabad’s duplicitous behaviour in international affairs and long complicity with terrorism.