Outright condemnation

Gamal Nkrumah looks through official and media reactions worldwide to the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin by the Israelis

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Governments and the media throughout the world condemned the assassination by Israel of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas. Ironically, many of the strongest condemnations came from some of the United States' closest allies in Europe and Asia.

"It is reckless behaviour, lacking consideration of the consequences it will bring about, and cannot be justified," warned Yasuo Fukuda, Japanese government spokesman. "We are extremely worried about the grave implications that this will have for the Middle East peace process and the region. We condemn Israel's action," said the Japanese official.

Chinese and Indian reactions to Yassin's assassination were no less vehement. "We think that the [policy of] targeted assassinations adopted by Israel is unhelpful in resolving the [Middle East] problem," warned Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan.

Washington's staunchest European ally, Britain, was just as castigating. "It's unacceptable, it's unjustified and it's very unlikely to achieve its objective," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin was equally acrimonious in his condemnation of the assassination of Sheikh Yassin, insisting that the incident would "feed the spiral of violence".

European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels strongly condemned Israel's abominable act. In a collective statement the ministers said that the assassination was "an extra-judicial killing that undermined the rule of law". In the same vein, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that the assassination of Sheikh Yassin was "against international law".

Israel's assassination of the wheelchair-bound Palestinian spiritual leader provoked especially scathing condemnations from the Muslim world. "The incident will prove to be a serious blow to peace efforts in the Middle East and inflame a wave of extremism," the Pakistani Minister of Information Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters in Islamabad.

Official statements emanating from Indonesia -- the world's largest Muslim country -- were as pointed. "The UN should put pressure on Israel and ensure it is held responsible for the assassination" of Sheikh Yassin, Indonesian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Marty Natalegawa was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Post. In a thinly veiled reference to the US, Natalegawa pointed out that "one country in the UN Security Council may back Israel, but that doesn't mean we have to let [Yassin's assassination] go" uncondemned by the international community.

The Indonesian paper also covered non-official reactions to Yassin's assassination. "The immediate result for Israel is that the world now is against it," the paper quoted the rector of Syrarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University as saying. Indonesia, the rector suggested, should initiate "a global movement against Israel".

But perhaps the most charged reaction to the assassination of Sheikh Yassin came from the militant Islamist group Lashkar- e-Taiba, which according to The Times of India vowed to strike against targets inside India. "We will take revenge here in India as the Yahood [Jews] and the Hanood [Hindus] are two sides of the same coin," the paper quoted a spokesman of Lashkar-e-Taiba as telling Greater Kashmir, a pro- independence Kashmiri paper.

One of the most disturbing ripple effects of the assassination of Sheikh Yassin is that it has incensed militant Islamist groups around the world who might strike against innocent civilians in retaliation. Ominously, the spokesman of Lashkar-e- Taiba allegedly pledged that, "we will convene a meeting of field commanders shortly to decide as to how revenge can be taken."

But the condemnation of the aged sheikh's assassination was not restricted to Muslim nations. Voices from countries as far apart as Cuba, Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa denounced Israel's murderous act. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) condemned the assassination of Sheikh Yassin as "brutal and calculated". In a statement issued in Johannesburg, COSATU said that the murder "is further proof that the Israeli regime will stop at nothing to deny the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, democracy and human rights".

The international media was more of a mixed bag. "Sheikh Yassin fell victim to the hatred he preached," commented the Toronto Star of Canada. "The killing of Sheikh Yassin was a mistake," wrote Barak Barfi in the British Guardian. Barfi added that it "removes a crucial restraining force within the organisation and will have dangerous repercussions". France's Le Monde was as grim about the bleak future of the troubled region.

"An extremely stupid action," read an editorial of Britain's Financial Times. "While there is no Israeli-Palestinian 'peace process' worth the name currently being pursued, this killing is a big escalation in the conflict, which in addition will now probably spill over into the international arena." The paper warned that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "assassinations campaign will encourage terrorism, not counter it".

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See:
Focus: Ahmed Yassin