Transfer Khadr to Canada, Amnesty International urges

[struggle4progress]

Source: CBC News

Last Updated: Thursday, June 14, 2007 | 4:58 PM ET

Canada stands almost alone as a country that has "abandoned" its citizens in the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay prison, Amnesty International charged Thursday, presenting an open letter demanding Ottawa act to repatriate Omar Khadr.

The letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper — signed by 111 legal academics and endorsed by 25 prominent Canadian politicians current and former — accuses the Canadian government of remaining silent on human rights violations of prisoners at the U.S. naval prison in Cuba.

The letter says Canada should "follow the precedent of other U.S. allies and insist on the repatriation of Khadr," who is the only Canadian being held at Guantanamo Bay. ~snip~

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/06/14/khadr-amnesty-070614.html?ref=rss

---

Government says move to repatriate Khadr ‘premature’
Andrew Mayeda, CanWest News Service
Published: Thursday, June 14, 2007

OTTAWA -- The Harper government says it is "premature and speculative" to consider bringing home accused Canadian terrorist Omar Khadr from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, despite growing calls for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to intervene. ~snip~

Craig Forcese, an expert in national-security law at the University of Ottawa, said the Canadian government has a number of options for bringing Khadr to justice.

For example, he could be prosecuted under Canadian war-crimes laws or charged with terrorism or treason offences under the Criminal Code.

"Bring him back to a jurisdiction where he can serve trial in a fair process, one in which the proper rules of evidence and proper rules of disclosure will be applied," said Forcese, who also signed the letter to Harper. ~snip~

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=9d0231c7-ed3f-4a00-a218-1f4943e01dec&k=44619

Ottawa not ready to ask for release of Khadr

Last Updated: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 | 8:56 PM ET
CBC News

Ottawa has not yet requested that Omar Khadr, the only Canadian being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be released to Canadian custody despite a judge's decision last week to drop all charges against him.

But Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said he has spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about Khadr's health.

"I asked specifically about his well-being and for a medical and psychological assessment to be done," MacKay said. "We're going to continue to provide consular access, as we do in the case of all Canadians." ~snip~

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/06/13/khadr-release.html?ref=rss

Canada has neglected its own child soldier
News Features By Travis Lupick
Publish Date: June 14, 2007

Canada has donated millions of dollars to the cause of rehabilitating and reintegrating child soldiers around the world, but no one in the Canadian government has ever attempted to help this country's own child soldier, a lawyer claims.

On June 27, Omar Khadr, the last remaining Canadian citizen held at the American detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, will have been detained by the United States without trial for exactly five years. This September, Khadr will celebrate his 21st birthday.

Muneer Ahmad, an American lawyer of Khadr's from September 2004 to June 2007, said he has visited him at Guantánamo on many occasions. In a telephone interview from Seattle with the Georgia Straight, Ahmad alleged that his former client has been interrogated countless times, has suffered physical torture, and has been threatened with deportation to foreign countries where he would be "raped by older men". When asked how he believed Khadr perceived himself after five years of imprisonment, Ahmad took a long pause before replying, "I'm not sure that he has that level of self-awareness, to be honest with you.…I think that is a part of him which has been lost." ~snip~

Michael Byers, a UBC political-science professor and author of War Law: Understanding International Law and Armed Conflict, has followed Khadr's case. He believes that Khadr, as a former child soldier, should be treated as a victim. "The proper response when he was captured would have been to take him back to Canada and to rehabilitate him in a secure environment, as we do with juvenile offenders in normal circumstances," Byers said. ~snip~

http://www.straight.com/article-95206/canada-has-neglected-its-own-child-soldier

Double standard for Canadians in trouble abroad
Jun 14, 2007 04:30 AM
Thomas Walkom

Governments like to say there is only one class of Canadian citizen – that no matter whether we were born here or naturalized, no matter our religion, ethnicity or political views, we receive equal treatment from the state. That is what governments like to say.

Unfortunately, this is not true – particularly when citizens find themselves in trouble abroad. If a middle-class Canadian tourist is killed in Mexico, the story is front-page news. The minister of foreign affairs makes statements; the Mexicans are asked to explain. Similarly, if a Canadian is mistreated by a country we disapprove of – like Iran or even China – Ottawa is happy to talk tough. The former Liberal government roasted Iran over the jailing and murder of Zahra Kazemi. Stephen Harper, the current prime minister, is taking China to task over its imprisonment of Huseyin Celil.

But if a Canadian is unlucky enough to run into trouble with a country that Ottawa does not wish to offend, it is a different story. In those cases, the government says little and does less. If the Canadian is unpopular or lacks media-savvy supporters, the government pays even less attention.

So it was with software engineer Maher Arar at the beginning of his torture-imprisonment ordeal. So it is still with Omar Khadr, the 20-year-old Canadian imprisoned for five years by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay. The Canadian government finally moved on the Arar file, in large part because his wife cut a sympathetic figure with the public. The government is able to stall on the Khadr file, in large part because his family does not. ~snip~

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/225237

Should Kids Be Tried as War Criminals?
By Chris Tenove, The Tyee. Posted June 14, 2007.

~snip~ But whether Khadr was a lawful or unlawful combatant, one thing is certain: he was 15 years old when American soldiers captured him. Should a child soldier be tried for war crimes?

U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Layne Morris argues that Khadr should be treated as an adult. For proof, Morris described Khadr's behaviour in the battle in which Khadr allegedly killed an American soldier. (Morris was injured in the same clash.) Trapped in a compound besieged by American troops, Khadr chose not to escape with a group of women. The Americans then bombed the compound, killing most of Khadr's companions. When American ground forces entered, the injured Khadr threw a grenade at them. "Anyone who thinks those are the actions of a child, I can't even take them seriously," Morris told the Canadian Broadcast Company''s show The Current recently.

Had he read Ishmael Beah's book, Morris would know that this is exactly how a child soldier would act. They are fierce fighters and suicidally loyal to superiors -- that is why child soldiers are used. Moreover, international legal convention, psychological research, and common sense all tell us that most youths are easily manipulated and therefore not entirely responsible for their actions. Indeed, David Crane, the former chief prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, said that he would not prosecute child soldiers because they were "as much victims as the people they raped, maimed and mutilated." ~snip~

http://www.alternet.org/story/53823/