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Indonesia calls for probe amid ‘crime against humanity’ in Gaza
Indonesia has called on the UN General Assembly to set up an independent commission to investigate what its top diplomat described as a “crime against humanity” in the Gaza Strip.
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People search through debris on Oct. 18, 2023 at the site of an unidentified blast at al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. (AFP/Mahmud Hams)
W
ith politics paralyzing the United Nations Security Council in its response to Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip, Indonesia has turned to the UN General Assembly to call for an immediate cease-fire and the establishment of an independent commission to investigate what its top diplomat dubbed a “crime against humanity”.
Addressing the UNGA on Thursday in New York, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi expressed Indonesia’s hope that the assembly would prove more useful in ensuring accountability from all parties to the conflict, as well as the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the blockaded Palestinian territory.
Humanity must come before politics, Retno proclaimed, while the situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate amid lackluster international support.
“I plead: Stop the killing. Protect the civilians. Let in humanitarian assistance,” Retno said in her speech at the 10th emergency special session of the UNGA.
“The world seems divided over different realities, as if there is a refusal to see the catastrophe in Gaza,” she told a forum tasked with drafting urgent nonbinding resolutions or recommendations on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The minister’s desperate call comes just a day after UNSC members shot down a fourth draft resolution to address the situation in Gaza, effectively blocking international intervention.
Retno is one of 110 speakers to address the conflict at the two-day debate, which takes place in the event that the UN Security Council cannot reach a consensus.
