Child Soldiers

The treatment of Omar Khadr is something that I've found disgusting since I first heard about it. A child soldier, aged 15, is accused of killing a US soldier with a grenade. It's not so much that the US arrested him and sent him off to Guantanamo Bay, it's that the Canadian government has done shit about it. It's similar to the case of a Canadian citizen being sent to Syria by the US instead of being sent back to Canada; in that case it was the US officials acting on information provided to them by the RCMP. That information was later found to have been wrong and largely speculative.

But the Khadr case annoys me most because he's a child soldier, accused of killing only 1 person in a combat zone. I say 'only 1' because Canada apparently has a reputation for putting a lot of time and effort into the rehabilitation of child soldiers from other countries, and comparatively those children have seen or done far worse things and in greater numbers. There is/was a group in Africa known for using child soldiers as part of it's more violent groups. The Canadian government sees fit to spend resources on these children because of the belief that they're victims, and yet one of our own citizens is allowed to wallow in a prison with a rather dismal reputation. We've allowed a child soldier to be interrogated and suffer abuse. It took years for Khadr's defense (currently U.S. navy Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler) to even acquire documentation related to the charges. Kuebler was in Canada recently telling parliament that he doesn't believe the charges are true (arguably the job of all defense council) and I've read before (but can no longer find the article) that there was testimony that Khadr wasn't the one that even threw the grenade in the first place. Yet we still do nothing. I

'm not saying that he shouldn't remain in custody while the trial continues. I'm not saying there shouldn't be a trial, and I certainly understand that it's quite possible he's guilty of what he's being charged with. However there is precedent in the international community in regards to the treatment and punishment of child soldiers. Even if Khadr's found guilty of murder, like many other child soldiers, Canada should spend the resources rehabilitating him and not allowing him to spend his life in some US military prison.


I'd like to make it clear, given the mixed audience at 2o2p, that I'm annoyed with my government and not the US or the existence of the holding area at Guantanamo Bay. It just seems, over the last several years, that the Canadian foreign policy is "if you find yourself in a bind outside of Canada, fuck off and don't bother us. Obviously, you deserve whatever has befallen you, legitimate charges or not. We don't care." It seems to be a pretty shitty position. While I understand the need to respect the autonomy of foreign nations' justice systems, that autonomy should only go as far as the reputation the country has in the international community. Leaving a citizen stranded in some hostile environment is unacceptable. We have the means here to track them, hold them if necessary, and ensure they are treated humanely. Fuck the autonomy of countries that presume guilt and treat people accordingly.

The article that got me all riled up this morning can be found below for those that are interested. At the end of the article are links to previous articles published on Khadr's case.

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/Canadian+child+soldier+faces+Nurembergtype+charges/Home/ContentPosting.aspx?isfa=1&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20080507%2fomar_khadr_080507&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True

Posted by NorthernPlato on Thu May 8, 2008 @ 10:48 am EDT | 2 Comments