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UN Says Trump Blackwater Pardons Violate International Law
A panel at the United Nations on Wednesday said that the move of President Donald Trump to pardon a number of former Blackwater contractors violated international law. These said Blackwater contractors had been convicted of killing more than a dozen civilians in Baghdad, Iraq.
As per a Reuters report, the U.N. Working Group on the use of mercenaries has denounced the action. The said panel released a statement, reacting to the pardon. It called Trump’s action an insult to justice and the memory of those killed.
Jelena Aparac, the working group’s chair, said: “Pardoning the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice and to the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their families…These pardons violate U.S. obligations under international law and more broadly undermine humanitarian law and human rights at a global level.”
Last week, Trump took action to pardon the four Blackwater contractors. Along with the four men, the president also pardoned a few former GOP congressmen. He also pardoned loyal supporters who were close to his 2016 campaign.
The United Nations panel was not the only one critical of the US President’s move. Top officials in charge of U.S. policy in Iraq during the time of the killing in 2007, Gen. David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, also condemned the action. In a joint statement, they said it is “hugely damaging, an action that tells the world that Americans abroad can commit the most heinous crimes with impunity.”
Blackwater, now known as Academi, was under intense scrutiny because of the incident that happened in 2007. As a result, the private military company lost its operating license in Iraq after the country’s government revoked it.
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