- VATICAN CITY (IslamOnline.net
& News Agencies) -- The president of the Vatican Justice and Peace
Commission lambasted Tuesday, December 16, U.S. occupation authority in
Iraq for showing humiliating pictures of ousted president Saddam
Hussein.
-
- "I personally felt sorry to see this broken man
treated like a cow as they checked his teeth," said Cardinal Renato
Martino as he presented Pope John Paul II's message for the World Day of
Peace, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
-
- "We should have been spared these images,"
he said, in reference to a video clip played by the U.S. army Sunday,
December
14, showing a disheveled and bearded Saddam being poked and prodded during
medical checks.
-
- The American military announced Saddam was captured a
day earlier during a military operation near his hometown of Tikrit a day
earlier.
-
- "In seeing this man in his such tragic
circumstances,
I felt pity and I hope that others felt it too," said the 71-year-old
cardinal, who served for years as head of the Vatican's diplomatic mission
to the U.N.
-
- In clear criticism of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq,
Martino said it would be "illusory" to think Saddam,s capture
would "repair all the drama and damage caused by a conflict that
remains
a defeat for humanity."
-
- During the Iraq invasion, U.S. senior officials, topped
by President George Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld criticized
the Iraqis and Arab news channels for showing U.S. war prisoners on TV,
calling it a war crime and threatening to hold Iraqi officials
accountable.
-
- Martino also hoped Saddam's trial would "contribute
to the pacification and democratization of Iraq," asserting it must
be conducted in "an appropriate place."
-
- The issue has sparked a controversy with some saying
he should stand an Iraqi trial under Arab-International supervision to
guarantee a fair trail.
-
- Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clarke expressed
readiness Sunday, December 14, to act as defense lawyer for Saddam.
-
- Law Of Force
-
- Pope Paul said countries should resist the
"temptation
to appeal to the law of force rather than to the force of law."
-
- In another development, Pope Paul criticized the U.S.
unilateral invasion of Iraq without a mandate from the United
Nations.
-
- "International law must ensure that the law of the
more powerful does not prevail," said the pontiff, appealing for the
replacement of "the material force of arms with moral force of
law."
-
- In reference to the so-called war on terror, the pope
said governments must avoid the "temptation to appeal to the law of
force rather than to the force of law."
-
- "Democratic governments know well that the use of
force against terrorists cannot justify a renunciation of the principles
of the rule of law," he said.
-
- The pontiff also underlined that the "fight against
terrorism cannot be limited solely to repressive and punitive
operations."
-
- The use of force had to be "accompanied by a
courageous
and lucid analysis of the reasons behind terrorist attacks," he
said.
-
- "The scourge of terrorism has become more virulent
in recent years and has produced brutal massacres which have in turn put
even greater obstacles in the way of dialogue and negotiation, increasing
tensions and aggravating problems, especially in the Middle East,"
Pope Paul averred.
-
- He underlined the necessity of "eliminating the
underlying causes of situations of injustice which frequently drive people
to more desperate and violent acts."
-
- http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-12/16/article05.shtml
|
