Aerial Incident of 10 August 1999 (Pakistan v. India) - The Court decides that the question of its Jurisdiction to entertain the Application shall be addressed first and fixes time-limits for th

Pakistanfusthermaintainsthat in the two and a half hours which elapsed between the
çhooting downandthediscovery of thewreckage,"Indian helicopters. . sneakedintoPakistan's

territorto piçkupafew itemsfromthedebns .. .in ordetoproduce 'evidenf oer[India's]initial
claim that the Atlantiquehad been shot down over Indianair space". However, according to
Pakistan,becauseof the"overwhelmingevidence ... Indianofficiais were obligedto admitthat
theAtlantique had indeedbeen shotdownover Pakistan'sairspace".

Pakistanstatesthattheabove-mentionedacts constitutbreachesof theobligation torefrain
from the threatoruse of forceunder Article2,paragraph 4,of theCharterof theUnitedNations;
of the provisionsofthe Agreementof 6 April1991between Pakistanand Indiaon Preventionof
AirSpnceViolations; and oftheobligationsundercustomary internationallaw nottouse forceand
not to violate the sovereigntyof motherState.

Pakistan thereforerequeststhe Court to judge and declare that "the actsof India ...
constitutebreachesof thelse] vatious obligation... for which . . India bearsexclusive legal
responsibiliy"and that"Indiaisunderanobligationto make reparationsto... Pakistanfortheloss
of the aircd andas compensationto the heirsof those killed".

As abaçisforthe Court'sjurisdiction, Pakistaninvokthe declarationsbywhichbothStates
haveacceptedthe compulsoryjurisdictionof the Court.

The fuIl text othe Court'sOrderwiIl shortlybe availableon the Court'swebsite atthe
following address: http:lfwww.icj-cij.org

Information Office:
Mr. ArthurWitteveen, First Secretary(tel+ 31 70 302 23 36)
Mrs. LaurenceBlairon,InformationOficer (tel: + 31 70 302 23 37)
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