China slams US bin Laden operation

CHINA: China has criticized the United States for violating’ Pakistan’s sovereignty by carrying out a military operation to kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. China holds that the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of any country should be respected, Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu as saying at a regular news briefing in Beijing on Thursday.

Jiang noted that the global anti-terrorism situation is still “grim and complex,” calling for more international cooperation to fight the threat. “The international community should boost their cooperation and make more efforts to counter the threat of international terrorism,” she said. The Chinese official added that Pakistan is a country at the front-line of anti-terrorism and that the international community should “give more understanding and support” to the country.

“We will continue to support Pakistan in instituting their own anti-terrorism strategies and carrying them out based on their domestic situation, and we appreciate Pakistan’s active participation in the international anti-terrorism cooperation,” Jiang said. US President Barack Obama claimed that Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces on May 1 in a hiding compound in Pakistan, resisting while unarmed.

He added that the military mission was conducted without the knowledge of Pakistani authorities due to US mistrust of their purported South Asia ally. A US official later announced that bin Laden’s body was abruptly buried at sea, falsely boasting that his hasty burial was in accordance with the Islamic law, requiring burial within 24 hours of death.

However, burial at sea is not an Islamic practice and Islam does not have a decree on a burial timeframe.

US officials also claimed their decision of the sea burial was made because no country would accept bin Laden’s remains, without elaborating on which countries were actually contacted on the matter.

Analysts, however, have raised serious questions as to why US officials did not allow for the application of a DNA test to officially confirm the identity of the corpse before the quick sea burial.

Presstv