I

t is shocking that the United Nations is supporting Julian Assange, a computer hacker, who published hundreds of thousands of classified US diplomatic cables, now wanted in Sweden for a rape investigation. He had on his own free will got holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy asking for asylum and electing to stay put there indefinitely to escape extradition to formally face charges in Sweden. The UN is treading on very thin ice in providing support for fugitives whose member countries are seeking to try them for serious offenses. Imagine the UN trying to defend Assange by saying that he was arbitrarily detained, which argument does not hold water by any stretch of the imagination.

Assange, the accused, is dictating terms to the international community, which is untenable. Any reasonable man would expect him to walk out of his self-created isolation and face his accusers like a man instead of flinging flimsy excuses that he was being '€œdetained'€. The UN, for some reason best known to itself, is ultra-concerned about the '€œrights'€ of Assange than those of the women who accuse him of serious sexual crimes. In the past the UN had unreservedly condemned sexual acts like rape against '€œcomfort women'€ in World War II but what do we see now? It seems to have moved away perilously from that noble position of integrity.

The UN must jealously guard its credibility as a fair, just and independent body and not risk taking sides where it is seemingly seen to be condoning sexual crimes.

A. Soorian
The Star/ANN/Seremban, Malaysia