FORMER IRISH president Mary Robinson has expressed unease at Osama bin Laden’s killing by US forces.
In an interview on BBC Northern Ireland's Sunday Sequenceprogramme yesterday she told presenter William Crawley "we still probably don't know the full truth, but it does appear that Osama Bin Laden was unarmed when the attack was made".
She continued: “In those circumstances, it would have been appropriate that he would be arrested and brought to justice. That’s what happens to perpetrators even of egregious crimes. And I share an uncomfortable sense with the Archbishop of Canterbury. I would have preferred, if somebody is unarmed and can be captured and can be taken into custody, to be brought to justice. A great democracy would do that. It would have been appropriate that he would have been . . . brought to justice.”
Last Thursday Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, and titular hear of the worldwide Anglican Communion, expressed unease at the al-Qaeda leader’s killing: “I think that the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling because it doesn’t look as if justice is seen to be done in those circumstances.”
Mary Robinson is honorary co-chair for the World Justice Project and a member of The Elders, an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela.