Dealing with terrorism should not be subjective

Editor, Allow me to comment on the editorial titled “acting against terrorists is not abuse of human rights” that was published in The New Times of Monday June 9. To some, apparently, if the targets are not themselves and their interests, the rights of terrorists are more important than the lives of their victims and in this case, the targeted populations should just bear it. Where their own people are concerned, however, their tolerance of terror is a Big Fat Zero. They will go to war and raze foreign countries and if necessary destroy it completely on mere suspicion that the government of that country ‘might’ some time in future collaborate with terrorists to attack them or their interest; what they have termed preventive war (in actual fact an illegal act of international aggression). But when a country that has experienced a genocide while the whole world looked on unconcernedly - or important powers of that world helped the genocidaires in their work - takes steps to deal with the remnants of those genocidaires who have made no bones about finishing the job they were stopped from accomplishing barely 20 years ago, those same powers who did nothing when genocide was carried out and who are extremely intolerant against the possibility they might themselves become terrorist targets in future give you lectures on human rights they themselves never respect. This is double standards at its best, if not sheer hypocrisy. Mwene Kalinda, Rwanda.

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Dealing with terrorism should not be subjective