Request for arrest warrants against Gaddafi is irrelevant and reveals 'double standard', say officials
Martin Chulov in Tripoli
guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 May 2011
"....Amnesty International described the move as a "step towards justice". The group's international director of law and policy, Michael Bochenek, said: "The request for arrest warrants is a step forward for international justice and accountability in the region.
"However, the international community that came together in such unprecedented agreement to refer Libya to the international criminal court, cannot allow justice to appear selective. By any standard, what is happening in Syria is just as bad as the situation was in Libya when the [UN] security council referred that country to the ICC.
"Real international justice has to be for everyone in the Middle East and North Africa."
The few Libyan officials authorised to speak in Tripoli regularly complain that leaders in Bahrain, Syria and Yemen are not held to the same standards as Gaddafi, a figure reviled by his neighbours, Europe and the United States over many years.
"Why is this not happening to Syria?" asked one official. "By any measure what they have been proven to have done is far worse than what Gaddafi is alleged to have done. There is a clear double standard. It is beyond a joke."....."
Martin Chulov in Tripoli
guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 May 2011
"....Amnesty International described the move as a "step towards justice". The group's international director of law and policy, Michael Bochenek, said: "The request for arrest warrants is a step forward for international justice and accountability in the region.
"However, the international community that came together in such unprecedented agreement to refer Libya to the international criminal court, cannot allow justice to appear selective. By any standard, what is happening in Syria is just as bad as the situation was in Libya when the [UN] security council referred that country to the ICC.
"Real international justice has to be for everyone in the Middle East and North Africa."
The few Libyan officials authorised to speak in Tripoli regularly complain that leaders in Bahrain, Syria and Yemen are not held to the same standards as Gaddafi, a figure reviled by his neighbours, Europe and the United States over many years.
"Why is this not happening to Syria?" asked one official. "By any measure what they have been proven to have done is far worse than what Gaddafi is alleged to have done. There is a clear double standard. It is beyond a joke."....."
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