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| United Nations |
Yesterday, the UN Security Council agreed a rare statement in which it hailed the death of bin Laden – rare insofar as it may be unprecedented for the Security Council to hail the death of any person.
Highlighting Al-Qaeda’s atrocities, the council said it "welcomes the news on May 1, 2011 that Osama bin Laden will never again be able to perpetrate such acts of terrorism."
"The Security Council recognises this critical development and other accomplishments made in the fight against terrorism and urges all states to remain vigilant and intensify their efforts in the fight against terrorism."
The council also called for increased cooperation among countries to urgently "bring to justice the perpetrators, organisers and sponsors of terrorist attacks."
Full text in UN press release.
So I'm proved wrong!
It’s legal after all! My understanding of international law is that if the UN Security Council says it’s legal, then it’s legal. A bit like ancient empires where the emperor's word was law.
For the past 24 hours I've been likening the US action to a gangland murder. Police? You're joking aren’t you? We'll do it our way!
One last thought – what does the expression "bring to justice" mean in this sentence: "bring to justice the perpetrators, organisers and sponsors of terrorist attacks"?
Does it mean justice in the Texan sense? As when George W Bush vowed to bring the terrorists to justice or justice to the terrorists? Seems so.
Most depressing thing about this to me was the lynch mob mentality which took hold in cyberspace and real space, where any voice mentioning fair trials was howled down and accused of being an apologist for terrorism. Seemingly otherwise rational people choosing not to see that everyone's innocent until proven guilty, some of them working in the British justice system. Shame.
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