Canadians are familiar with the case of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian who was sent by the United States, against his wishes, to Syria, where he was reportedly tortured repeatedly during a 10-month confinement.Mr. Brody then mentions the case before the U.S. Supreme Court about U.S. citizens being held indefinitely as "enemy combatants." In response to 9/11,
But Mr. Arar's case is unfortunately not unique. . .
a new globalized pattern of human-rights violations led by the United States that includes offshore prisons, cross-border arrests that verge on kidnappings, and the "rendition" of terror suspects to countries where information is beaten out of them.The United States government under President Bush does not even pretend to believe in the rule of law.
The classic case in this brave new world has been Guantanamo, Cuba, which the Bush administration deliberately chose as a detention facility for more than 700 detainees from some 44 countries in an attempt to put them beyond the reach of the U.S. courts - and of any courts, for that matter. The U.S. government has argued that U.S. courts would not have jurisdiction over these detainees, even if they were being tortured or summarily executed.
But similar problems are posed by the United States' detention of terrorist suspects in other locations abroad. Indeed, Guantanamo may not be the worst problem; it may even be a diversion from more extreme situations. Perhaps out of concern that Guantanamo will eventually be monitored by the U.S. federal courts, the Bush administration does not hold its most sensitive and high-profile detainees there. Terrorism suspects like Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are detained instead in undisclosed locations abroad, with no access to Red Cross visits or any sort of neutral oversight of their treatment.
In Iraq, too, the United States has failed to provide clear, consistent information on its treatment of some 10,000 civilians it has detained there. In violation of the Geneva Conventions, the United States has provided no information at all for at least 200 so-called "high security detainees," as well as persons under interrogation prior to transfer to prison.
In Afghanistan, the United States is also holding civilians in a legal black hole at separate off-limits detention facilities at Bagram Air Base and other temporary detention locations around the country - with no tribunals, no legal counsel, no family visits and no basic legal protections. A report released by Human Rights Watch in March presents compelling evidence suggesting that U.S. personnel have committed acts against detainees amounting to torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment. Released detainees have said that U.S. forces severely beat them, doused them with cold water and subjected them to freezing temperatures. Many said they were forced to stay awake, or to stand or kneel in painful positions for extended periods of time. Three people have died in U.S. custody there. Two of the deaths were ruled homicides by U.S. military doctors who performed autopsies. The Department of Defence has yet to offer adequate explanations.
And then there are the so-called "renditions." The U.S. government has not explained why it sent Maher Arar to Syria rather than to Canada, where he resides; why it believed Syrian assurances that he would not be tortured to be credible in light of the government's well-documented record of torture, and why it did not even attempt to monitor his treatment in Syria.
Similarly, the Bush administration has still not answered charges levelled in The Washington Post which, citing numerous unnamed U.S. officials, described the rendition of captured al-Qaeda suspects from U.S. custody to other countries, such as Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, where they were tortured or mistreated. These countries, like Syria, are ones where the United States itself has criticized the practice of torture. In one case prior to that of Mr. Arar, U.S. operatives were involved in the transfer to Syria for interrogation of a dual German-Syrian national arrested in Morocco, a move protested by the German government.
Last June, five prominent Muslims - a Kenyan, Sudanese, Saudi and two Turkish nationals - were arrested in the middle of the night in the small African country of Malawi in a joint security operation involving the Malawian police and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Although a Malawian high court judge issued an injunction barring the men's deportation, ordering the authorities to charge them or release them on bail, the five were spirited out of the country. This sparked three days of rioting by Muslims against Christians. Five weeks later, the detainees reappeared in Khartoum, Sudan, of all places, after having been interrogated for a month, apparently by the CIA in Zimbabwe. Bakili Muluzi, the President of Malawi, has apologized to the families, and the BBC reported him as saying that he did not approve of the arrests but acquiesced in order to please the Americans.
In another case, the Bush administration sought the surrender in Bosnia of six Algerian men who were suspected of planning attacks on Americans. After a three-month investigation, Bosnia's Supreme Court ordered the men's release from custody for lack of evidence. When rumours spread of U.S. efforts to seize the suspects anyway, Bosnia's Human Rights Chamber - which was established under the U.S.-sponsored Dayton peace accord and includes six local and eight international members - issued an injunction against their removal. Yet in January 2002, under U.S. pressure, the Bosnian government ignored this legal ruling and delivered the men to U.S. forces, who whisked them to Guantanamo.
Around the world, human rights are being assailed in the name of the international campaign against terrorism, but these cross-border practices pose a unique challenge to the rule of law internationally because many of them fall outside the jurisdiction of established courts.
Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)
