Ministry of External Affairs described the statement "unfortunate". It deplored that "a criminal act triggered by the untimely death of a young Indian student under suspicious circumstances has been termed as xenophobic and racial".
A day after the envoys from African countries in India threatened to take up the issue of recent attacks on their nationals in Greater Noida, here with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the world body expressed hope that the culprits would be soon brought to book. "We do very much hope that people who are responsible for the attacks are brought to justice," spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarric told reporters on Monday.
In a major diplomatic embarrassment, the envoys from the 43 African countries with missions here, had branded the attacks "xenophobic and racial in nature", and alleged that the government took no "known, sufficient and visible" deterrent action. The statement, issued by Eritrea's Ambassador Alem Woldemariam, Dean of the African Heads of Mission in India, was issued after a meeting of the ambassadors on March 31.
Ministry of External Affairs described the statement "unfortunate". It deplored that "a criminal act triggered by the untimely death of a young Indian student under suspicious circumstances has been termed as xenophobic and racial".
In order to contain diplomatic damage, senior MEA officials also rushed to speak to African envoys and explain them the steps government has proactively taken following the Greater Noida attacks. The government sources here said that not many African envoys had attended the March 31 meeting or endorsed the statement to knock the doors of the UN. Some of the prominent African envoys told government officials that they had not attended the meeting.
But what apparently seem to have angered African diplomats is the tardy progress of investigations into the murder of a Congolese student-cum-teacher in New Delhi last year. "Then too, Indian officials had promised a speedy trial after we threatened to boycott a foreign ministry programme to celebrate the African Union's relations with New Delhi," a senior African diplomat told DNA, on condition of anonymity. Ten months later, one of the accused in the murder remains untraced and the trial is yet to begin.
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