[LINK] UN to investigate Osama execution

[kim holburn]

The UN has an office "Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions" and they're going to investigate the US.

> UN: “Extrajudicial executions can never be justified … even in time of war.”
>
> The use of drones in Pakistan violates both the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit willful killing. Targeted or political assassinations—sometimes called extrajudicial executions—are carried out by order of, or with the acquiescence of, a government, outside any judicial framework.
>
> As a 1998 report from the UN Special Rapporteur noted, “extrajudicial executions can never be justified under any circumstances, not even in time of war.”
>
> Willful killing is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, punishable as a war crime under the U.S. War Crimes Act. Extrajudicial executions also violate a longstanding U.S. policy. In the 1970s, after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence disclosed that the CIA had been involved in several murders or attempted murders of foreign leaders, President Gerald Ford issued an executive order banning assassinations.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/05/07/49966961.html

> UN to investigate Osama execution
>
> May 7, 2011 08:30 Moscow Time
>
> Two UN Special Rapporteurs appealed to the U.S. to disclose all the circumstances surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden.
>
> Christopher Haines, is responsible for extrajudicial executions, and Martin Scheinin, an expert on protecting human rights while countering terrorism, are going to determine the legality of the execution of the leader of Al Qaeda.
>
> In their statement they said that the UN needs to know whether the plan by the U.S. Special Forces included capturing Bin Laden alive.
>
> The authors of the report underlined the fact that even with persons suspected of terrorism it is permissible to kill only in self-defense or in the defense of others.
>
> According to various sources, Osama bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot dead by U.S. forces.


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Kim Holburn
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