Human Rights Watch flip-flops on Bin Laden killing

Published time: May 04, 2011 20:49
Edited time: May 05, 2011 01:26
US, Washington: A woman walks past a newspaper stand in Washington, DC, on May 2, 2011. (AFP Photo / Jewel Samad)

Following the US killing of Osama Bin Laden Human Rights Watch took to Twitter to chastise America for claiming the killing was about justice, arguing justice requires a trial and conviction, after having taking a different approach.

A Human Rights Watch statement originally said, “The United States should help to support the basic rights of the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan, free from the threat of those who perpetrate international crimes.”

Iain Levine, a deputy executive director at Human Rights Watch said, “His [Bin Laden’s] death should also bring an end to a horrific chapter of human rights abuses in the name of counter-terrorism.”

Later, after criticism, Human Right Watch amended online comments on their website to state significantly changing the essence of the message; “At a time when citizens around the world have engaged in peaceful demonstrations in the name of freedom and democracy, Bin Laden’s death is a reminder of the thousands of innocents who suffer when terrorist groups seek political change through brutal means.”

But, that message did not remain constant. Human Rights Watch flipped on their message.

The next day, May 3, Ken Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch tweeted, “Ban Ki-moon wrong on Osama Bin Laden: It’s not ‘justice’ for him to be killed even if justified; no trial, conviction.”

The UN and Ban Ki-moon praised Bin Laden’s death referring to it as “a watershed moment in our common global fight against terrorism”.

He added, “This is a day to remember the victims and families of victims, here in the United States and everywhere in the world…Personally, I am very much relieved by the news that justice has been done to such a mastermind of international terrorism.”

Ban Ki-moon’s statement and focus on the innocent victims of the world was strikingly similar to the second message posted by Human Rights Watch, which makes Roth’s later tweet even more ironic.

Comments (5)

Democracy 06.05.2011 16:55

The 3000 innocent men women, as well as the children in day care center of the twin towers on 911 were also unarmed. Those innocent people murdered by terrorists also were not addressed at the ICJ, nor were they allowed to hold the position of innocent until proven guilty by Bin Laden.

Everyo ne knows that Bin Laden declared war on America, during war people get killed. Terrorists have no human rights, because they admit they do not believe in being humane. Even if they did, they gave any rights away when they became terrorists. We have evidence, supplied to us by Al Qaeda, Bin Laden has admitted several times on video that he was responsible for the killing of innocent people and even boasted about it. Innocent until proven guilty is for American law and American citizens, not terrorists.

T his is Undeniable Proof that the USA will WILL find & kill any terrorist that kills our innocent citizens regardless where they are, or how long it takes. Eye for an Eye....

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Barak Oboma 06.05.2011 12:11

Usam Bin Laden, Geroge Bush, Dick Cheney, Barack Obama, I can hardly tell the difference, they all seem so alike. And you! are you crazy enough to be so gullible? Figure it out, if US Navy Seals did indeed see Usam Bin Laden alive, alone and unarmed and proceeded to shoot him dead, then the US Government and its President Barack Obama are in indeed culpable and indictable of Murder and Terrorism, Invasion and Crimes against humanity which should be addressed at the ICJ by the government of Pakistan, and makes Barack Obama in fact impeachable, more so constitute abuse to the citizenry of the US, to whom a duty was especially owed to bring Usama to trial in a court of Law with competent Jurisdiction, for God sake! Barack Obama is a Lawyer, he knows that a Man is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and no person can be the complainant, the marshal, the judge and the executor in its own grievance (Nemo Judex in Causa Sua, In Propria Causa, Audi Alterem Partem), but the US got the covert intelligence of the CIA which is known to be an agency specialized in false intelligence reports e.g. WMD presumption which led to the Invasion of Iraq, the abuse of Iraqi Sovereignty and Occupation of Iraq that subsists until this day; the USA also invaded the compound where Usama was, executed him, and buried him at sea, what bullock? If the USA has any moral integrity left, it should show us pictures and the remains of Usama or shut up and take its war machine out of Africa starting with Libya.

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Human Feces 05.05.2011 03:36

Ask the Burmese ethnics about Human Rights for 45 years they
did squat shit.  They licked Aung Sang Suu Kyi ass

Yes they are worthless..

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