Revealing his “uncomfortable feeling” at the killing of an unarmed Osama bin Laden, the Archbishop of Canterbury said the way United States took does not serve justice.
Bin Laden was shot dead in a US raid on his mansion in Abbottabad, 100km (62 miles) north-east of Islamabad last Sunday.
The administration of US President Barack Obama initially said that Al-Qaeda leader was armed and was killed in a firefight when he resisted capture by US troops.
But a day later, the White House said that bin Laden was “unarmed” when he was shot dead.
Williams also criticized the White House over the different accounts coming out of the Obama administration about the raid.
“I think it’s also true that the different versions of events that have emerged in recent days have not done a great deal to help,” Williams told reporters at a press briefing.
“I don’t know the full details, any more than anyone else does.
“But I do believe that in such circumstances, when we are faced with someone who was manifestly a war criminal in terms of the atrocities inflicted, it is important that justice is seen to be served.”
Williams, the spiritual head of the 80-million strong Anglican Communion, is the latest religious leader to criticize the killing of Bin Laden.
Several Muslim clerics condemned the failure to arrest bin Laden as a breach of international law as well as the disposal of his body at sea.
The United States has accused Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda group of being behind the 9/11 attacks, when hijackers rammed planes into the World Trade Towers in 2001, killing at least 3,000 people.
The attacks prompted Washington to launch its so-called “war on terror” under which two Muslim countries; Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded.
Besides September 11, the US has blamed Bin Laden for a string of attacks — including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.
Controversy
Williams’ remarks sparked outrageous reactions, especially from senior political and military figures.
“It’s quite easy to talk about due process and justice from the warmth and safety of a palace in London, but out in the real world, things are rather more complicated,” a coalition minister told The Telegraph.
A senior government source also criticized the Archbishop’s comments as “very unwise.” “One has to give some thought for all the unarmed people that bin Laden killed,” he said.
“This was a very silly thing to say.”
Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, even went further to say that Williams should have “stayed out of it”.
“As a lawyer I always believe it is safer to wait to see what the evidence is, to keep one’s eyes open until that moment and then make a judgment,” he said.
Joining the chorus of condemnations, General Lord Dannatt, a practicing Anglican himself and former commander of the British army, attacked Williams’ argument.
“In the highly charged atmosphere widening the debate is unhelpful,” he said. “In the specifics of bin Laden in those circumstances the actions of the troops were perfectly justifiable.”
MP Tobias Ellwood, an aide to the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, argued that arresting and prosecuting Al-Qaeda leader would have been an unacceptable risk.
“This was the central al-Qaeda control centre – it was a legitimate target, and knocking on the door with an arrest warrant was not an option,” he argued.
“Osama bin Laden was responsible for many, many deaths around the world, and I do not believe it was worth risking another life to attempt to take him alive.”
Yet, the London-based Amnesty International lend support to Williams, saying the Angelical leader was “right” to raise concerns about the way bin Laden was killed.
The United Nations’ human rights chief, Navi Pillay, also called on the American government for a full disclosure of the facts about the killing of bin Laden.
She said this was necessary to establish the legality of the operation, confirming that all counter-terrorism actions must respect international law.
Source: OnIslam
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