CHILD-SOLDIER INCARCERATED IN GUANTANAMO BAY

PREAMBLE: This month we depict the situation of a Canadian youth held at the offshore US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a site selected by the US military for detention of “enemy combatants” so as to circumvent the normal jurisdiction of US laws and to exert military control over due process.

The background on Guantanamo Bay itself is instructive. The US assumed territorial control over this Cuban region under the 1903 Cuban-American Treaty, which granted the US a perpetual lease. The Cuban government today considers the US presence to be illegal, arguing that the Treaty violates Article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which declares a treaty void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force in violation of international law. Article 4 of the document, however, states that the Convention shall not be retroactively applied to treaties made before itself.

[Ed Note: this background information is taken mostly from Wikipedia; it appears that the exemption in the Vienna Convention was required to obtain the consent of countries which would then otherwise immediately have been in contravention].

Late Breaker: To the original blog we have added on July 21 a statement from former Prime Minister Paul Martin (scan down).

CHILD-SOLDIER INCARCERATED IN GUANTANAMO BAY
The Toronto-born Omar Khadr, captured at the age of 15 years (legally a “child-soldier”) following a military action in Afghanistan, is the youngest prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay.

The only Western citizen remaining in Guantanamo, Khadr is unique in that Canada has refused to seek extradition or repatriation despite the urgings of Amnesty International, UNICEF, the Canadian Bar Association and other prominent organizations.

He has spent six years in the prison camp charged with war crimes and providing support to terrorism after allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier. In February 2008, the Pentagon accidentally released documents that revealed that although Khadr was present during the firefight, there was no other evidence that he had thrown the grenade. In fact, military officials had originally reported that another of the surviving militants had thrown the grenade just before being killed. Khadr himself had been shot in the back.

In 2005, a Canadian court ruled that “conditions at Guantanamo Bay do not meet Charter Standards” (Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms). Yet Khadr has been repeatedly refused appropriate intervention by the Canadian government, thus failing to provide an impartial judicial process which is impossible to obtain through the US “military justice” system. In the week ending June 7, 2008 a U.S. military judge dropped charges against Omar Khadr. The Pentagon said immediately that it would appeal that ruling.

Revealed July 15, 2008 (Globe and Mail) is evidence that the Canadian Canadian Security Intelligence Service (“CSIS”) was complicit in the detention and maltreatment of this citizen. This is born out by the release today of video footage under court order [this is now on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQHFFbD_-Pg].

In commentary, a statement in today's (July 15) Globe and Mail authored by Ed Broadbent for Rights and Democracy, and Alex Neve, Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada, declares: “In terms of Canadian and international human rights law – indeed by the standards of the US Bill of Rights – what Mr Khadr is being subjected to by the US military commission at Guantanamo Bay is a travesty of justice.”

According to a Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs official (one Jim Gould) who had a split role between gathering intelligence and ascertaining the prisoners well being, he met “a ‘screwed up young man’ whose trust had been abused by just about everyone who had ever been responsible for him” (Globe and Mail front page and p 2, July 15, 2008) . This depiction now clearly includes Canada’s prime minister.

It is invidious that Prime Minister Harper still does not get it. There are issues here of international human rights as well as Canadian Charter rights, not to forget the Geneva Conventions which the Bush administration deliberately put aside. As Prime Minister, Harper has the power to require that Khadr be transferred to Canada, and it is long overdue for him to act on this. His failure to do so isolates him among his international peers, and makes both him and his country appear morally weak, especially when all other western countries have succeeded in having their imprisoned nationals repatriated to face due process on their own turf.

Canada continues to act in a subservient manner to the discredited Bush administration. Foreign Minister Peter MacKay recently stated that he would not approach Washington about the case "until such time as the process and the appeals process has been exhausted". MacKay said he had asked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to ensure that a medical and psychological assessment be done on Khadr. Clearly Canada must regain an independent foreign policy.

Alex Neve, Secretary-General of Amnesty's Canadian chapter, said in June 2008 that it was clear that Khadr and the 380 other prisoners held at the U.S. naval base on Cuba had no chance of being treated fairly. (REUTERS June 14, 2008. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14455347.htm )
"It is time, long past time in fact, for the Canadian government to intervene publicly and forcefully and unequivocally demand that Omar Khadr's stay at Guantanamo Bay must now come to an end," he told a news conference.

"His case should be dealt with appropriately under the Canadian justice system, taking account of the evidence against him as well as the fact that Omar Khadr was a 15-year-old minor in a war zone ... Canada can no longer remain silent." Neve said Britain, France, Germany and Australia had succeeded in repatriating their citizens from the base.

"This truly is a deep, unforgivable injustice," said Neve, who released an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper urging Ottawa to act. The letter was signed by five former Canadian foreign ministers as well as 111 academics, lawyers and legislators.

LATE BREAKER Globe and Mail July 21: Former Prime Minister Paul Martin said yesterday that Canada should lobby to bring back... Khadr. "I think Bill Graham, who was foreign affairs minister at the time, said it best. Which was, 'If we had known then what we know now, then we would have taken strenuous steps to repatriate Mr Khadr to Canada' ", Mr Martin told CTV's Question Period in an interview broadcast yesterday.

HISTORICAL QUOTE : “Justice delayed is justice denied”.
William Gladstone - British politician (1809 - 1898).