UNITED NATIONS-
The United Nations has denounced as horrendous crime the gang rape and murder of two low caste teenage girls in a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and called for boosting measures to prevent violence against women.
There are some incidents (where) words are difficult to choose It was clearly a horrendous incident Stephane Dujjaric Secretary General Ban Ki moon s spokesperson said in a response to a question at the regular noon briefing on Friday.
The rape and death of the two girls who were hanged from a tree is a horrendous crime he added. It (the incident) only underscores the wave of violence that we have seen against women. Whether in Pakistan whether in India whether gender based violence that we have seen most recently in California that was clearly targeted at women and the Secretary General has spoken out forcefully against violence against women and has encouraged all those who can do something about it to do so Dujarric said.
When a correspondent pointed out that the killings were the result of the cast system embedded in India the spokesman said we have seen the harm that traditional practices can do against women and whatever the reason is we have seen the results and it needs to be condemned in the strongest possible term.
The two minor girls who were reported to be cousins went missing since Tuesday afternoon in Uttar Pradesh’s Badayun district. On Wednesday their bodies were found hanging from the tree which led to a huge public protest in the area and a massive outcry across the state.
Dujarric said the UN chief had spoken out forcefully against violence against women and had started a campaign a few years ago encouraging men to stand up against violence against women.
