DAP calls on US to  cease air strikes and to resort to international legal co-operation to end terrorism and to bring to justice the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attacks


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
 

(Petaling Jaya, Tuesday): The United States government should cease air strikes in Afghanistan and refrain from an invasion by ground troops and instead seek an end to terrorism and to bring to justice the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington through international legal co-operation.

Waging war through the US-led military strikes is most regrettable as treating the heinous acts of September 11 as an act of war will only escalate the violence and loss of life.

The terrorist attacks of September 11 were criminal acts  and the perpetrators of the crimes should be brought to justice through the international legal system.

Terrorism will only be be defeated by a long-term commitment to building democracy, respect for human rights and economic and social development in impoverished areas of the world.

The biggest lesson of the September 11 attacks is that technology cannot ensure security and can be turned against the most technologically-advanced nation in the world, and that justice for the terrorist attacks must be sought through an internationally co-operative police effort to apprehend the perpetrators and try them in an international tribunal for crimes against humanity.

In this connection, the United States should heed international criticisms and opposition not only to its air strikes but also the accompanying air drop of 37,500 food packages from two planes, destined for starving Afghans.

The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) condemned the air drop of food packages as not a humanitarian aid operation in any way but more a  “military propaganda operation” designed to justify the air strikes and to  make international opinion accept the U.S.-led military operation.

(9/10/2001)



*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman