Human rights groups are complicit in murder,
says Trimble
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Thursday January 29, 2004
The Guardian
The Nobel Peace laureate and Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble called
human rights organisations a "great curse" yesterday and accused them of
complicity in terrorist killings. "One of the great curses of this world
is the human rights industry," he told the Associated Press news agency
at an international conference of terrorism victims in Madrid.
"They justify terrorist acts and end up being complicit
in the murder of innocent victims."
His words drew an angry reaction from Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch, two of the world's biggest human
rights groups, with about 200,000 members in Britain and more than a
million worldwide.
Steve Crawshaw, director of the London office of Human
Rights Watch, said:"It is extraordinarily regrettable and disappointing
that, above all, a man like that says something like this.
"His own emphasis, together with other politicians in
North ern Ireland, on the fact that violence against civilians on all
sides of any conflict cannot be justified, has been so important in
recent years."
Kate Allen, Amnesty International's UK Director, said:
"The threat of terrorism must never be used as an excuse for abusing
people's human rights. David Trimble should remember that human rights
organisations have condemned killings and other abuses by terrorist
groups all over the world, while at the same time criticising
governments who use the 'war on terror' as a pretext to abuse their
citizens."
A spokeswoman for the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo,
which awarded Mr Trimble his prize in 1988, declined to say whether it
considered itself a member of the "human rights industry".
"We don't comment on what former laureates say. We have
no reaction to that," she said.
Mr Trimble was joint winner of with the former leader of
the SDLP, John Hume, for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to
the conflict in Northern Ireland.
He made his comment as one of the keynote speakers at the
first international congress of terrorism victims, which ended in Madrid
on Tuesday night.
He backed another politician at the conference, the
Colombian vice-president Francisco Santos, who said that human rights
groups were hindering progress towards peace in his country.
"For human rights organisations to call [the Colombian
rebel group] Farc 'armed opposition groups' undermines the struggle of
those who have decided to side with democracy," Mr Santos said. "That is
not right. It is unacceptable."
After hearing of Mr Trimble's comments Robin Kirk, a
researcher on Colombia for Human Rights Watch, said: "Human rights
defenders are under attack in Colombia, so these are dangerous comments
to make."
Human Rights Watch has criticised Colombia's
anti-terrorist legislation and calls groups such as Farc either "illegal
armed groups" or "leftist guerrillas".
The Madrid conference ended with a declaration which went
some way to supporting Mr Trimble.
It said: "We call on NGOs and other civil organisations
that stand for the defence of human rights to make a commitment to
defend victims of terrorism and to identify terrorist acts for what they
are, regardless of their cause or pretext and without striking balances
or blurring the distinction between victims and executioners."
Jan. 26, 2004
Terrorist victims speak out at world forum
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
MADRID, Spain
Several hundred victims from Israel, Algeria, Ireland,
Colombia and other countries plagued by political violence met Monday to
talk about how terrorism damaged their lives.
Organizers and participants at the International Congress
on Victims of Terrorism said their shared experiences, spoken out loud
at a world forum, may help defeat the plague of violence.
"Do not underestimate the strength of your role. Citizens
who empower themselves to speak out do society and democracy a great
favor," Pat Cox, president of the European Parliament, said in opening
remarks.
Javier Romeo Pastor, a retired prison director who
survived a 1991 letter bomb sent by the Basque separatist group ETA,
recalled his four colleagues who died.
"It marks your life," he said. "Terrorism can only be
finished off if everyone joins together and opposes it. That's why we're
here, to raise social awareness of the effects of terrorism, to finish
it once and for all."
After Crown Prince Felipe noted that "the social
isolation and moral weakness of terrorists is more apparent every day,"
participant Patricia Gallagher, whose son died in the August 1998 Omagh,
Northern Ireland market bomb set off by the IRA, said:
"The support for victims here in Spain is impressive. ETA has killed
about 800 people. In Ireland, almost 4,000 people have died, but you
would never see the British royal family denounce terrorism so
strongly."
Cox outlined European Union counterterrorism initiatives
taken since Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. The EU has drafted a
list of terrorist organizations, outlawed their financing and passed
legislation allowing cross-border arrests.
The two-day conference at San Pablo CEU University
outside Madrid attracted about 600 participants from about a dozen
countries including Algeria, France and the United States.
At seminars, round-table discussions and interviews, they
rejected violence.
"I want to tell people about the intense loneliness that
we feel that is our common experience no matter what our politics are,"
said Arnold Roth, 52, from Israel. His 15-year-old daughter died in an
August 2001 suicide bombing.
On Tuesday, Nobel Peace Prize laureate David Trimble,
leader of the Ulster Unionist Party in Northern Ireland; Colombian Vice
President Francisco Santos and others were to address the forum.
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who survived a 1995 ETA
car bomb attack, was scheduled to give closing remarks.
Organizers said the congress would be held next year in
Colombia.
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