COSATU statement on death of Osama bin Laden
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has consistently deplored the use of terror and violence for political ends.
We unreservedly condemned the 9/11 attacks in the USA, and others in Kenya, England, Spain and elsewhere. We have absolutely no sympathy for the late Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation, which has murdered hundreds of innocent civilians. There can be no possible justification for their methods, regardless of the political cause for which they are carried out.
COSATU is however extremely concerned at the manner in which Bin Laden was killed by US government forces in Pakistan. It is following a trend of using armed force, under the excuse of fighting ‘terrorism', by the USA, Britain and France in particular, to justify invading other countries in order to protect their economic interests and impose their hegemony on the world.
The invasion of Iraq was justified by claims that Saddam Hussein was holding weapons of mass destruction for use in terrorist campaigns, which to this day has never been proved. COSATU deplored Saddam's brutal repression of his people, but noted that Saddam had previously been an ally of the USA in the war against Iran. We condemned the US-led invasion which was not waged to promote democracy but to secure access to the country's oil reserves.
Similarly the US-led invasion of Afghanistan was justified as part of the war against terror, despite the fact that the Taliban, like Saddam, had also been promoted by the US as an ally against the then Soviet Union and its sympathetic regime in Afghanistan.