Guantanamo, Torture, Detainees

2009-01-23T08:55:00.000-08:00

Many in the developing countries and especially in Pakistan may not understand the significance of the President Obama signing the Executive Order on Guantanamo, changing of interrogation rules, and the disposition of the detainees. It is a huge deal. I almost always avoid comparing Pakistan with the US as in my opinion these two countries are almost on different planets when it comes to human rights, civil rights and value of human in general. Though former President Bush left no stone unturned to bring the US at par with many underdeveloped countries that lack any structure for the civil and human rights.

Unfortunately, Pakistan is unique in this regard that the government resorted to dismissing the whole Supreme Court when the Supreme Court asked some pointed question about some missing persons in Pakistan. There is no denying that the CJ had some political motives behind his probe and there is also no disputing the fact that many of the missing persons had questionable affiliations, still the issue was whether we are willing to provide some benefit of civil laws to most demented people or not? Imo, no one should come down to the level of criminals and we should not counter the criminal behavior with another set of criminal conduct. This amounts to rewarding those who have been involved in terrorism against the innocent civilians. Illegal detentions in Pakistan have turned some criminals in to heroes and the Guantanamo bay detention facility became the rallying cry for the criminals to recruit and destroy the lives of many more young people in our part of the world.

Some details of the Obama Admin decisions via the
New York Times.

1. U.S. policy will no longer ignore our core principles.

2. Guantanamo will be closed within one year.

3. The U.S. will comply with its treaty obligations including the Geneva Convention and the Convention against Torture.

4. Anyone detained by the United States will be interrogated according to rules established by theArmy Field Manual (which is what the human rights community wanted included in the Military Commissions Act).

5. The administration is establishing an inter-agency task force to recommend on how to handle those detainees that cannot be released and provide guidance and advice to both the military and the Administration on how to handle detainees in the future.

6. The case of Ali Saleh al Marri is currently before the Supreme Court. The Administration is asking the Court to postpone consideration of the case until it can determine whether it wishes to continue to be a party to the case.

With these actions, President Obama has obliterated much of the very actions that caused such ill will around the world, and pulled the rug out from underneath those who argue that the United States was a force for harm in the world.
This is a great first step but there is a lot still to be done. Hopefully, the Obama admin will continue to take decisions that help improve the human rights situation around the world and not just in the US.

pakghq

Guantanamo, Torture, Detainees