Statement on the news that Muammar Gaddafi has been murdered

With every passing day the concepts of international morality and the rule of international law are being murdered in Libya! And so, if it turns out to be true that the British, French and American forces of NATO have finally succeeded in assassinating Libya’s Muammar Gadaffi -just as they have murdered thousands of his fellow citizens - this may well turn out to be the final nail in the coffin of the system of "international law".

The highest instrument in the entire edifice of international law is the Charter of the United Nations. And the second Article of that Charter lays down one of the fundamental rules of international law, as follows:- "All Members (of the United Nations) shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State....". The only exceptions to this sacred principle are where a nation uses force in self defence, or where the Security Council of the United Nations mandates the use of force in response to some breach of international peace.

So, in light of this sacred and fundamental principle, how could anyone with a modicum of intelligence or decency justify what Britain, France and the United States have done to the African nation of Libya over the past 7 months?

On the 17th of March 2011, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution - Resolution 1973 which authorised member states of the United Nations to take "necessary measures...... to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in (Libya)......... while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory."2How, in God’s name, could the leaders of Britain, France and the United States justify taking such a defensive, humanitarian resolution, and twisting it into an evil instrument of aggression, murder and destruction?

No-where in Resolution 1973 were the U.S, Britain and France authorised to murder Muammar Gadaffi or his relatives! No-where were they mandated to invade Libya or to impose a so-called "regime change" on that country! No-where, in a resolution devoted to protecting "civilians and civilian populated areas" were they authorised to rain down 2000 pound bombs and cruise missiles on the largest and most densely populated civilian areas of Libya! No-where were they authorised to bomb Gadaffi’s home town of Sirte, a city with a population of 75,000 people, to the ground! No-where were they authorised to give comfort and support to racist Arab rebels who have initiated a genocidal campaign against dark skinned Libyans and sub-Saharan Africans resident in Libya. And, perhaps most importantly, no-where were they authorised to re-impose on the world extreme forms of imperialist aggression and domination that we all thought had been consigned to the dust bin of history.

I cry shame on President Barack Obama, Prime Minister David Cameron and President Nicholas Sarkozy!I cry shame on all the other cowardly, irresponsible world leaders who sat back and permitted this crime to be committed!

Their hands now drip not only with the blood of Libya, but with the blood of a thoroughly discredited and mortally wounded system of international law! They have all sewn the wind, and will surely reap the whirl-wind!

* David Comissiong is president of the Clement Payne Movement in Barbados.