Row at Trimble rights outburst

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Friday January 30, 2004 10:21 by robby

HUMAN rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have condemned comments made by Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble in which he called human rights groups a "great curse" and accused them of complicity in terrorist killings.

"One of the great curses of this world is the human rights industry," Mr Trimble said at an international conference of terrorism victims in Madrid this week.

"They justify terrorist acts and end up being complicit in the murder of innocent victims."

The Nobel Peace laureate's comments provoked an angry response.

Amnesty's Patrick Corrigan said the remarks were "well off the mark and ill-advised".

Steve Crawshaw of Human Rights Watch, said:"It is extraordinarily regrettable and disappointing that, above all, a man like that says something like this."