A United Nations panel on Wednesday said it President Trump
Donald Trump Georgia’s signature audit found no fraud in the presidential election. Pompeo calls for the release of a Chinese journalist arrested because of coronavirus coverage Pence refused to sign a plan to overturn the election, lawyers say MOREThe forgiveness of several ex-Blackwater contractors convicted of killing more than a dozen civilians in Baghdad violated international law.
Reuters reported that the UN working group on the use of mercenaries condemned the action in a statement, calling Trump’s decision to forgive the four men an affront to justice and an insult to the memory of the dead.
“Forgiving the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice and to the victims of the massacre at Nisour Square and their families,” said the group’s president, Jelena Aparac, according to the news agency.
“These pardons violate the United States’ obligations under international law and are more damaging to humanitarian law and human rights globally,” Aparac continued.
Trump last week apologized to the four men along with a handful of former Republican congressmen and a number of supporters close to his 2016 campaign.
The forgiveness of former Blackwater contractors was met with harsh criticism from General David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the top American officials responsible for US policy in Iraq at the time of the 2007 killings, who considered this “extremely damaging, an action which tells the world that Americans abroad can commit the most heinous crimes with impunity, ”in a joint statement obtained by Reuters.
Now known as Academi, the private security services company faced strong criticism of the 2007 incident and, as a result, lost its license to operate in Iraq from the country’s government. The company also faced accusations of other human rights abuses as a result of WikiLeaks’ disclosure of thousands of documents related to the Iraq War in 2010.