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| AI calls for probe into Khadr's case |
| 2010-10-27 |
| [Iran Press TV] Amnesty International has called for an investigation into human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... violations committed against former child detainee Omar Baby FaceKhadr. The calls comes after Khadr was forced to accept a plea deal and plead guilty to five "war crime" charges against him at a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Forced? The 24-year-old is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier during a July 2002 raid on an al-Qaeda compound in Afghanistan. He was only 15 years old when he was maimed and captured by US troops in Afghanistan. Khadr now faces charges of murder in violation of the laws of war, conspiracy, providing material assistance to a terrorist organization and espionage. This is while many critics say that the Canadian citizen should not be prosecuted because killing a soldier during a firefight does not amount to "war crime." "While military trial proceedings may be coming to an end in Omar Khadr's case, the obligation on the US authorities to address serious concerns about human rights violations suffered by him does not end," said Rob Freer, Amnesty International's USA researcher. He added that US authorities "have ignored their international duties in the treatment of children, which was the case when Omar Khadr was jugged eight years ago." Under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which the United States ratified in 2002, governments are obligated to recognize the special situation of children who have been recruited or used in an armed conflict. However, The infamous However... Washington has not only ignored the protocol, but also has sent the former child detainee to Guantanamo Bay detention center -- arguably Washington's most notorious detention camp. Khadr has repeatedly alleged that he was subjected to interrogation techniques and detention conditions that amounted to torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. "The US must abandon military commissions and bring any Guantanamo detainee it intends to prosecute to trial in ordinary civilian federal court, in accordance with international fair trial standards," Freer stressed. On January 22, 2009, US President Barack B.O.Obama signed executive orders directing the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp within a year and the immediate case-by-case review of detainees still held at the facility. Obama's orders, however, have yet to be materialized. Earlier in October, the White House also refused to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, becoming the only country beside Somalia not to have done so. |
| Posted by:Fred |