The Nobel Peace laureate and Northern Ireland's Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble called human rights organizations a "great curse" on Wednesday and accused them of complicity in terrorist killings.
"One of the great curses of this world is the human rights industry," he told reporters at an international conference of terrorism victims in Madrid.
"They justify terrorist acts and end up being complicit in the murder of innocent victims," Trimble said.
His words drew an angry reaction from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, two of the world's biggest human rights groups, with more than a million members 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 Northern Ireland, on the fact that violence against civilians on all sides of any conflict cannot be justified, has been so important in recent years," Crawshaw said.
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 organizations have condemned killings and other abuses by terrorist groups all over the world, while at the same time criticizing 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 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.
Trimble was joint winner of with the former leader of Northern Ireland's Social Democratic and Labour Party (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.
The conference 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 organizations to call (the Colombian rebel group) FARC `armed opposition groups' undermines the struggle of those who have decided to side with democracy," Santos said. "That is not right. It is unacceptable."
After hearing of 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 criticized Colombia's anti-terrorist legislation and calls groups such as FARC either "illegal armed groups" or "leftist guerrillas."
The conference in Madrid ended with a declaration that partly supported Trimble's position.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS