SEAL operation 'perverted justice'
May 5, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE killing of Osama bin Laden by a Navy SEAL unit when he was unarmed has raised concerns the United States may have gone too far in acting as policeman, judge and executioner of the world's most wanted man.
Former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt told German TV the operation could have incalculable consequences in the Arab world at a time of unrest there.
"It was quite clearly a violation of international law," he said. "The operation could also have incalculable consequences in the Arab world in light of all the unrest."
It was a view echoed by high-profile Australian human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson.
"It's not justice. It's a perversion of the term. Justice means taking someone to court, finding them guilty upon evidence and sentencing them," Robertson told Australian Broadcasting Corp television from London.
"This man has been subject to summary execution, and what is now appearing after a good deal of disinformation from the White House is it may well have been a cold-blooded assassination."
Robertson said bin Laden should have stood trial, just as Nazis were tried at Nuremburg or former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was put on trial at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
"The last thing he wanted was to end his life in a prison farm in upstate New York. What he wanted was exactly what he got - to be shot in mid-jihad and get a fast track to paradise and the Americans have given him that," he said.
A senior Muslim cleric in New Delhi, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, said US troops could have easily captured bin Laden. "America is promoting jungle rule everywhere, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan or Libya. People have remained silent for long but now it has crossed all limits."
Former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt told German TV the operation could have incalculable consequences in the Arab world at a time of unrest there.
"It was quite clearly a violation of international law," he said. "The operation could also have incalculable consequences in the Arab world in light of all the unrest."
It was a view echoed by high-profile Australian human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson.
"It's not justice. It's a perversion of the term. Justice means taking someone to court, finding them guilty upon evidence and sentencing them," Robertson told Australian Broadcasting Corp television from London.
"This man has been subject to summary execution, and what is now appearing after a good deal of disinformation from the White House is it may well have been a cold-blooded assassination."
Robertson said bin Laden should have stood trial, just as Nazis were tried at Nuremburg or former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was put on trial at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
"The last thing he wanted was to end his life in a prison farm in upstate New York. What he wanted was exactly what he got - to be shot in mid-jihad and get a fast track to paradise and the Americans have given him that," he said.
A senior Muslim cleric in New Delhi, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, said US troops could have easily captured bin Laden. "America is promoting jungle rule everywhere, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan or Libya. People have remained silent for long but now it has crossed all limits."
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