By Hector Moyane:
The recent celebrations of the death of Osama Bin Laden, “the holy warrior of Islam”, by the Americans has indeed thrown the world back to barbarity. We Africans do not celebrate death, even of the enemy.
The Pentagon, the Obama administration and Americans in general have betrayed the American dream, which is based on liberty , peace, respect for human rights and freedom. Mr bin Laden was unarmed and defenceless. The US broke its own vow on human rights. According to article 148 of the Instructions for Government of Armies of the US in the Field, also known as The Lieber Code, which was promulgated as General Orders No100 by president Abraham Lincoln on April 24 1863, Bin Laden was slain without trial.
Article 148 states: “The law of war does not allow proclaiming either an individual belonging to the hostile army, or a citizen, or a subject of the hostile government, an outlaw, who may be slain without trial by any captor any more than the modern law of peace allows such intentional outlawry, on the contrary it abhors such outrage. The sternest retaliation should follow the murder committed in consequences of such proclamation, made by whatever authority. Civilised nations look with horror upon offers of rewards for the assassination of enemies as relapse into barbarism.”
Confirmation that Mr bin Laden was unarmed when gunned down by US special forces makes them guilty of violating The Lieber Code. The question is whether the White House would agree with Mr Lincoln that their actions are a relapse into barbarism. What is worrying is that the US has become law unto itself, violating any law with impunity, whether international or domestic.
Siyabuswa, Mpumalanga