A State's Right to Assassination Against Terrorists

Michael Walzer from Princeton University, USA in his work Just and Unjust War argues that assassination of terrorist leaders is a form of extreme law-enforcement. Professor Louis Rene Beres from Perdue University USA strongly argues that though assassination is normally illegal under international law, limited support for assassination can be found in Aristotle's Politics, Plutarch's Lives and Cicero's De Offices. Prof. Beres argues that;

i. No crime without punishment is a sacred principle of international law.

ii. Where known perpetrators of crimes cannot be punished through normal judicial remedy (i.e. extradition and prosecution) the criminals have to be punished extra-judicially, and assassination may be the least injurious form of such punishment.

iii. The right of self defence as codified in article 51 of the UN Charter and customary right of anticipatory and preemptive attack could include assassination as a distinct law enforcing measure. Justification sought in such assassinations must have the two essential invariants that they must be terrorists and their crimes cannot be remedied through normal judicial process.

Beres further states that “Lacking any central institutions of global authority to interpret and enforce the rules against terrorism, the existing law of nations must continue to rely on even the most objectionable forms of self-help”.

Some International Examples of Assassinations by States against Terrorists;

• British Commando raid to assassinate German General Alfred Rommel during World War II(Charles Foley’s Legion for the Survival of Freedom. 1992, page 155)
• Phoenix Program of US Military assassinated 1800 Viet Kong Leaders per day.
• Israel Defence Force’s targeting of Hamas Leaders
• From 1991 to 2006, Russia assassinated Chechnyan leaders including Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev.
• CIA assisted assassination of Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic
• 1960 Eisenhower administration ordered assassination of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba
• Eight different attempts by the CIA to kill Fidel Castro
• Assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and Che Guevara
• Reagan administration's air strikes to kill Libya's Qaddafi killing his baby daughter instead.
  
• Assassination of Fathi Shiqaqi, leader of the terrorist group Islamic Holy War by Israeli Intelligence in Malta on October 26^th 1995.
• Assassination in March 2005 Haitham al-Yemeni of Al-Qaeda in northwestern Pakistan.
• Assassination on 3^rd December 2005 of Al Qaeda’s Abu Hamza Rabia while sleeping in a small village in Northern Pakistan.
• Assassination attempt in Damadola village Pakistan of Al Qaeda’s Number two Ayman al-Zawahiri killing 18 civilians instead.
• Assassination on 3rd November 2002 of Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, an al-Qaeda leader responsible for the USS Cole bombing in Yemen.

1. Beres, Louis. Rene. Assassination Of Terrorists May Be Law-Enforcing. Purdue University. 1995.

2. Masud Kazi, Anwarul. Assassination As a Tool of Statecraft. The Daily Star (Bangladesh), Vol.4 nu.110, Sunday 14 September 2003