Trial of "Child Soldier" Opens at Guantanamo

Trial of "Child Soldier" Opens at Guantanamo

 

By Megan Iacobini de Fazio

 

August 10, 2010, Inter Press Service

 

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52448

 

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 10, 2010 (IPS) - Omar Khadr was only 15

when he was captured by U.S. forces in 2002 in Afghanistan.

Now, eight years later, the 23-year-old is on trial in

Guantanamo Bay, in the first military commission trial since

the beginning of the Barack Obama administration.

 

The Pentagon-appointed defence attorney, Lt. Colonel Jon

Jackson, has called the case "the first one against a child

soldier in history".

 

Khadr, a Canadian citizen, is accused of throwing a hand

grenade and killing a U.S. Special Forces soldier during a

U.S. bombardment of an al Qaeda compound in the eastern

Afghan city of Khost.

 

Ahmed Khadr, Omar's father, was an Egyptian-born Canadian

citizen who was linked to senior levels of bin Laden's al

Qaeda network in the 1980s. In 1993, he moved his family to

Afghanistan from where he allegedly sent money to al Qaeda.

 

The U.N. Secretary-General's Special Representative for

Children in Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, told IPS

that "The U.N. has advocated repeatedly that no child, abused

in war time as a child soldier or porter or war wife, should

be held personally responsible for the acts and orders of

their commanders."

 

She also urged the two countries, which are both parties to

the Optional Protocol on Children in Armed Conflict, "to

allow for Omar's reintegration into society through

rehabilitation programmes", adding that to her knowledge

"much has been done to prepare such programmes in Canada".

 

The statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) states

that no one under the age of 18 should be tried for war

crimes. Prosecutors in other international tribunals have

also used their discretion not to prosecute children in the

past.

 

In addition, there seems to be little or no evidence that

Khadr actually threw the grenade that killed the soldier,

other than "confessions" allegedly obtained under suspicious

circumstances.

 

Khadr's lawyer claims that the accused was interrogated in at

the U.S.-run Bagram air base while still recovering from

serious injuries, which included two gunshot wounds and

shrapnel in his face and eye. He was also threatened with

rape in a U.S. prison, one interrogator confirmed, and

promised a return to Canada if he told the interrogators what

they wanted to hear.

 

During a hearing in May, the interrogators involved claimed

they had treated Khadr very well, but did admit that he was

threatened and interrogated while still severely wounded.

These abusive interrogation methods are in violation of

Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and other humane

treatment international standards.

 

Patrick Parish, the military judge working on the case in

Guantanamo, has decided to admit the statements extrapolated

during these interrogations into court.

 

Prosecutor Jeff Groharing has tried to depict Khadr as a

committed and informed al Qaeda fighter, claiming that he

"embraced [the al Qaeda ideology] and used it to justify his

activities". In contrast, his defence attorney has described

him as a child forced into war by adults.

 

Aside from the controversy about the detention and treatment

of Omar Khadr, there is also a debate about the fairness of

military commissions.

 

Earlier this month Khadr's lawyer filed a petition with the

U.S. Supreme Court, claiming that commissions are

unconstitutional because they offer a lower standard of

justice to foreign citizens, whilst U.S. nationals also get

the protection of a federal court.

 

"The United Nations continues to insist that children accused

of crimes, as distinct from war crimes, must be tried in

accordance with the rules and procedures which respect and

respond to his minority at the time of the alleged offence"

Coomaraswamy told IPS, adding that "Clearly, no military

tribunal, which I am aware of, meets these international

standards".

 

Anthony Lake, the executive director of the U.N. children's

agency UNICEF, has also spoken against children under 18

being tried for war crimes.

 

The U.S. and Canada were amongst the countries that worked to

persuade the Security Council to create and implement norms

for the protection of children in conflict.

 

It is now their duty, Coomaraswamy commented, "to come to a

mutually acceptable solution on the future of Omar Khadr that

would prevent him from being convicted of a war crime he

allegedly committed when he was a child".

 

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