Geneva: A United Nations expert on
counter terrorism on Wednesday severely criticized two landmark
resolutions of the Security Council that separated Taliban and
al Qaeda regimes from each other.
Prof Martin Scheinin, the outgoing UN Special
Rapporteur on counter-terrorism, said the two resolutions on
June 17 that separated persons and entities belonging to
Taliban from the al-Qaeda against the backdrop of ongoing
consultations between the NATO forces and Taliban were
"politically" motivated without proper legal and human rights
considerations.
He told reporters that the new Taliban sanctions
regime under Security Council Resolution 1989 is "a
retrogressive step in relation to the human rights concerns"
as "the grounds for delisting [Taliban] are openly political."
It is inconsistent and untenable because it took away
the powers of independent review from the ombudsperson,
Scheinin said.
After the killing of Osama bin Laden in May by the US
special forces in a covert operation in Pakistan, the US
administration started what security analysts call
back-channel consultations with Taliban, which sparked off a
wave of killings, including the siege of Kabul`s
Intercontinental by a squad of suicide bombers.
In comparison to the resolution on Taliban, the
Security Council`s resolution 1988 on al-Qaeda was commendable
as it did away with the consensus requirement from delisting
decisions.
"However, this important improvement (in the al-Qaeda
resolution) is compromised by the possibility of any member of
the Security Council to refer a delisting recommendation by
the Ombudsperson or by the designating State to the full
Security Council, where its normal decision-making rules will
apply," Scheinin said.
PTI
