The United Nations representative on child soldiers says Omar Khadr should not be imprisoned in the United States but rather returned to Canada to be rehabilitated.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, said Khadr represents the "classic child soldier narrative: recruited by unscrupulous groups to undertake actions at the bidding of adults to fight battles they barely understand."
Toronto-born Khadr was 15 when he threw the grenade that killed U.S. Special Forces Sgt. Christopher Speers in Afghanistan in 2002. Since then, Khadr has been in detention at Guantanamo Bay.
At the military commission hearing in Guantanamo Bay on Monday, Khadr withdrew his previous pleas of not guilty to five war crimes charges, including murder in violation of the laws of war, attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists, and spying.
I really don't know what to think about Khadr.
On the one hand, he is a terrorist and deserves whatever he gets. If he was not caught that day, he might have eventually been complicit in the wounding and even deaths of Canadian Troops. Let him rot in jail.
On the other, he was only 15, and at that age really deserved some different handling than adults. Child soldiers are apparently treated differently, but not in this case. Exactly how he could have lived in Toronto and then gone on some sort of Jihad against the west is confusing to me (all Toronto jokes aside).
I think that any of his thoughts about the west being evil are probably hard and fast beliefs now after 8 years in jail surrounded by radicals.
They talk about de-radicalizing of him like it is some program they can run on his brain to solve a virus.
Mind you, they also de-Nazified lots of German folks at the end of WWII. Unfortunately they also tried to starve the German population out of existence.
And I guess he murdered in violation of the laws of war because he was not in uniform and probably wanted to fit back into the local population after the incident. Well isn't that the same as every Taliban in Afghanistan? How come every Taliban they have caught hasn't been shipped to GitMO to face trail? Isn't killing innocent civilians against the rules of war? How come there are no Allied servicemen and women on trail for murder?
The United States of America, "the greatest country in the universe", has taken International Law and molded it at its convenience. Damn them for starting the whole wastefull, useless affair.
Damn the government of Canada for not getting Khadr out of GitMo long ago.
The whole thing stinks.
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