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In the new global "War on Terror" the issue of torture seems to repeatedly come up. The United States has been accused of torturing prisoners in their custody and there has been evidence which seems to back up these claims. These include a 2006 report by the United Nations which found that the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay amounted to torture and the fact that it has been admitted that the CIA used the technique known as "waterboarding" on prisoners during interrogation which involves strapping prisoners to a board, placing a cloth or piece of plastic over their mouth and then pouring water over their faces in order to create the sensation of being drowned. There is also the practice of "extraordinary rendition" where US authorities seize suspects and deport them to other countries to be interrogated by local authorities who are known or suspected to use torture in their interrogations.
Canada too has seen the issue of torture come up in connection with its war in Afghanistan. The Canadian military forces operating in the Kandahar province of southern Afghanistan sometimes take prisoner persons who are suspected of being members of the Taliban. Under an agreement with the Afghan government these prisoners are then transferred into the custody of the Afghan authorities. However, there had been criticism that Afghan officials were torturing prisoners handed over by the Canadians and, due to these concerns, the Canadian military temporarily suspended transfers in late 2007 in order to ensure that Canada would not be complicit in violations of international law.
Prisoner transfers between Canada and Afghanistan have resumed as of last week now that there have been certain corrective actions taken by the Afghan government. For one thing, an Afghan official who was suspected of abusing prisoners has been suspended from his job and arrested. Additionally, Canadian officials have started to train Afghan authorities in human rights and appropriate methods of interrogation, the Afghans will now photograph and document prisoners transferred into their custody and a doctor will visit prisoners on a weekly basis. As well, an organization known as the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission will continue to monitor the treatment of prisoners as per an agreement made with Canada earlier in 2007.
Some individuals and groups, including Amnesty International, are not satisfied with the changes implemented however and say that Canada has not done enough to ensure the safety of the prisoners it hands over to the Afghan government. They criticize the resumption of the prisoner transfers. Some have suggested that Canada could be guilty of committing war crimes if it is found that prisoners it transferred ended up being tortured in Afghan prisons.
As I have stated before I think that the war in Afghanistan is a justifiable war. The Taliban were an oppressive regime who committed serious violations of human rights and who allowed Afghanistan to be a haven for terrorists. Still, though Canada is right to be in Afghanistan and fighting the Taliban we must be ever vigilant that we do not abandon the moral high ground. We cannot engage in torture nor can we, through our inaction, allow torture to be committed. I am hopeful that the actions taken recently by the Afghan authorities to safeguard the wellbeing of prisoners will be effective but I do not want to be complacent and I expect the Canadian military and Canadian government to continue to monitor the situation, to hold them to account and to ensure that Canada abides by international law and the principles of common human decency.
Now, with regards to the broader "War on Terror", as it is conducted by the USA I have some serious concerns. I should note that I am not thinking here of Iraq specifically - although I find that conflict troubling and I suspect it likely was a mistake for the USA to invade Iraq in the first place and, regardless of whether the war was advisable in the first place, it appears to have been badly bungled - but rather all the efforts of the US authorities to fight terrorism in their entirety. I think the US has used some methods that are, at their best, morally questionable and, at their worst, possibly war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. For example, I find it hard to conceive of the CIA's use of waterboarding as anything else other than torture. In Canadian law (and I believe in the international convention against torture as well) torture is defined as treatment that causes severe physical or mental pain or suffering and I can't see how making a person believe that they are on the verge of death could not be considered severe suffering?
As well the US practice of extraordinary rendition is also troubling. How can a country that is supposed to be an example of freedom and justice send people off to be interrogated by regimes that a reasonable person would have to believe are going to torture them? Indeed, a Canadian citizen, one Mr. Maher Arar, was once the subject of such treatment by the USA. While travelling in the USA Mr. Arar, who was also a Syrian citizen, was seized and deported to Syria because Canadian officials apparently told their US counterparts that they suspected he was linked to terrorism. There he was imprisoned for a year and subjected to torture. In the end the Canadian government admitted they had incorrectly impugned the character of Mr. Arar and had supplied inaccurate information to the US authorities that resulted in his deportation and torture and, in compensation for such conduct, they paid him a multi-million dollar settlement. The last I heard the US government still had not admitted liability and have offered no compensation to Mr. Arar and, indeed, will not even allow him to enter the USA due to the fact that he is still classified as a possible threat to security.
The USA and Canada are allies and friends but Canada must be willing to stand up and denounce US practices that shock the conscience of freedom and justice. That means denouncing practices such as waterboarding and the transfer of prisoners by the US to countries where torture will be used. It is my understanding that the ultimate purpose of the "War on Terror" is to protect a way of life, the American way of life, and I cannot imagine any definition of the American way of life that would exclude such things as liberty and justice. Therefore, the question is: Can one acchieve freedom and justice by commiting acts of oppression and injustice? Or to put it another way: If you must become your enemy in order to defeat him, hasn't he already won? |
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Posted by hairytoad2005 on 2008-03-03 06:17:40 | Rating: | Views: 58
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