Amnesty under fire

Amnesty supports Moazzem Begg, human rights campaigner and known Taliban sympathiser, and they

By Lucy Snow

Amnesty International has recently become involved in a war of words with their former employee Gita Sahgal. Having enjoyed decades of a spotless reputation, their integrity has come under fire, with even Salman Rushdie condemning what he calls their ‘moral bankruptcy,’ despite receiving Amnesty’s unwavering support when he was placed under a Fatwa by the Iranian regime for writing The Satanic Verses. Attacks on Amnesty have centred on the charity’s continuing support of ‘Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban,’ British citizen Moazzam Begg and his organisation ‘Cageprisoners’. Despite enduring three years of torture and detainment at Guantanamo, Begg has never been charged with any terrorist offence, and previous to his ‘special rendition’ spent his life doing charitable work in Taliban occupied Afghanistan. He recently embarked on an Amnesty endorsed European tour to encourage countries to provide a safe haven for released Guantanamo inmates.

Of course Sahgal is right when she asserts that ‘being a victim of human rights violations does not automatically make you a defender of human rights,’ but doesn’t Begg deserve a little more credit? To claim that Amnesty’s support of Begg’s campaign to shut down Guantanamo and rehabilitate its prisoners renders the world’s largest human rights organisation Taliban supporters is ludicrous. As for ‘Cageprisoners,’ why shouldn’t there be an organisation specifically designed to protect the rights of the detainees and raise awareness of their ongoing plight? Particularly as, despite repeated promises that the prison will be closed, there is yet to be any marked progress. As soon as you enter Begg’s website, you are asked to write letters of support to the inmates, in order to show that there is still someone outside fighting for them.
Amnesty have defended their links with Begg, claiming that they support his humanitarian efforts but are not necessarily aligned with his support of known terror suspects such as Anwar Al-Awlaki. This is a fair analysis. Why should Amnesty ignore this man’s credentials as an ambassador for the abolition of an illegal regime? There has been massive media support for Sahgal, but I believe their emphasis needs to shift. There should be less focus on what crime the detainees may or  may not have committed and more on actually shutting down the prison and reuniting these inmates with the correct legal processes. Even those who have done something wrong do not deserve to be ghost prisoners, lost in a limbo of legality and subjected to gross human rights abuses. Begg does support some questionable characters, but they continue to deserve his support, and ours, as long as they remain in this situation.
Ironically, Begg’s lawyer Clive Stafford Smith is also facing condemnation for his defence of human rights. The US Department of Defense has pressed charges against him and his colleague Ahmad Ghappour, for their ‘unprofessional conduct’ in writing to Obama, detailing their client Binyam Mohamed’s torture in Guantanamo and Morocco. They will stand trial on May 11, and could face six months in a US jail. Although unlikely to result in a custodial sentence, with Stafford Smith himself describing the charge as ‘frivolous’ (the letter in fact revealed no classified information, only the title was left uncensored), this latest move represents the lengths the USA is willing to go to in the bid to cover up their violations.
It is unclear what possible motivation could be behind this. Where exactly does the White House think this is going?  Not only have they repeatedly breached basic human rights through torture,  and launched a systematic campaign to conceal it, they are now attempting to prosecute the men who dared point out the gaping moral flaws in this policy. This recent condemnation of the organisations and individuals who have tirelessly campaigned for the abolition of Guantanamo brings another dimension to the embarrassing truth of our human rights policy. Instead of trying to cover up mistakes the US needs to start putting them right. Obama is trying to shut down Guantanamo, and the UK should be supporting him by endorsing Begg’s mission to persuade our allies to grant asylum to the remaining prisoners.