Omar Khadr: Child Soldier

Omar Khadr is a young man who was captured by Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan during a confrontation in 2002. He was 15 at the time and badly wounded; medics had to work hard to save his life. It turned out he was the son of a close collaborator with Bin Laden and, surprise, a Canadian citizen. His father had taken him to Pakistan and enlisted him in the struggle when he was 10 years old. After a period of “robust” interrogation, he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay where, after 8 years, he remains the only Western prisoner there. The US government recently put him through a military trial at the end of which he confessed to all the crimes he was accused of as part of a “deal” that would limit his further incarceration to another 8 years with the possibility of transfer to a Canadian prison after one year.

Those are the basics of the history. However, there are a few other angles that need to be added. It could be well argued, and the debate has been on-going, that the first confession (in 2002) was obtained under the duress of torture as it is described in international law. It can also be argued that the second confession at the end of his trial is also the result of a situation, of  duress either to confess or to spend the rest of his life in prison,. (He is now 24.) What is even sadder is that it is clear that the current Canadian government couldn’t care less about him, has consistently refused to repatriate him and has made noises that it does not want to do so now even though there is a “plea deal.”  Finally, it could and has been argued, by General Dallaire, that the military tribunal itself is illegal under international law and has no authority to examine his case. This had been the young man’s position throughout the trial.

All of that is interesting and perhaps important.  But it is irrelevant. Omar Khadr is a child soldier. Someone no less than General (and Senator) Dallaire has argued this forcefully. A child soldier is someone less than 18 years of age who has been made to engage as a combatant in a violent conflict. Canada was the first country to sign on to the international convention that governs the treatment of child soldiers. The US is also a signatory. They are NOT to be treated as criminals no matter what they have done. Canada has spent millions of dollars on programs in other countries to reintegrate child soldiers back into society. We have only one and we have treated him as a criminal. Khadr, isolated from the world since he was 15, has been a model prisoner, by all reports, and has given many signs that he would like to be able to have a chance in life, to study and to do something for others. Since he was 15 years old, we have given every indication that we, as a society, don’t care at all about him and will never give him a chance. He may well spend another 8 years in prison (until he is 30). If the current government is still in power, every indication is that they will do all in their power to make sure he never comes back.

Is this what democracy, rule of law, a compassionate society means? What kind of message are we sending the world?  What are we telling one another as citizens? 

You can find out more about child soldiers at http://www.child-soldiers.org/ or http://www.child-soldier.org/  For more about the legal situation of Omar Khadr see http://www.law.utoronto.ca/documents/Mackin/Khadr_ChildSoldier.pdf  Romeo Dallaire has just published a book about child soldiers: They Fight like Soldiers, they Die Like Children. 2010 Random House.