A Statement by the Asian Human Rights CommissionWORLD/PAKISTAN: UN mechanisms must intervene in the case of an 11 year-old boy in extended US/Afghan detainment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-238-2008
September 13, 2008

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights CommissionWORLD/PAKISTAN: UN
mechanisms must intervene in the case of an 11 year-old boy in extended US/Afghan detainment

The Asian Human Rights Commission is concerned to hear from the
United States Department of Justice that an 11-year old boy, and
US-Pakistani Citizen, Mohammed Ahmad, has been illegally detained in
Afghanistan since 17 July 2008, when his mother was allegedly
arrested by the FBI. Strong attempts by his family in Pakistan and
the US to gain custody of the child have failed, and with the mother
extradited to the US, the condition and the whereabouts of the child
are currently unconfirmed. The whereabouts of his two younger
siblings, who mysteriously disappeared with the mother and son in
March, 2003, are also unknown. Authorities have offered no specific
information as to the location or condition of any of the children.
The concern is that Ahmad may be being used as a pawn in the
US/Afghanistan “war on terror” and will be kept in
custody indefinitely, or that he may disappear. His rights are being
abused on a breathtaking number of counts, within the knowledge of
three governments, all of which have signed or ratified the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The AHRC demand that
the children be recovered and returned to family members, and that
state authorities be made accountable for their detainment.

That this young boy has been detained at all is of extreme concern.
According to article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC), no child should bear punishment or discrimination on the basis
of the status, activities, expressed opinions or beliefs of the
child’s parents. Article 3 holds that in all actions concerning
children, the best interest of the child shall be a primary
consideration.

Article 37 is more specific:
b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or
arbitrarily. The arrest detention or imprisonment of a child shall be
in conformity with the law.

d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to
prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as
the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her
liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial
authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action.

A letter from the United States Department of Justice (USDJ), dated
22 August 2008, to the boy’s mother’s attorney, Ms
Elizabeth M Fink, noted that Dr Aafia’s son had been in
detention in Afghanistan’s Bagram prison, and that he was
removed on 31 August, 2008. An eleven year old child should under no
circumstances be held captive in a prison, or in a foreign land.

Equally unacceptable is the thwarting of efforts by Master
Ahmad’s family to gain access to him and his siblings. Dr
Fauzia is the younger sister of Dr Aafia and a Pakistani, US-educated
scientist currently living in Karachi. She has detailed a dedicated
series of efforts to see the child. These include: applying for a
visa for Afghanistan on 24 August; sending faxes on the 25 August to
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan and the Consul General of
Afghanistan in Karachi; talking personally to a high officer at the
foreign office who verbally confirmed her application, and to a staff
member at the Afghan consul who confirmed the same. Dr Fauzia alleges
having received a phone call from an official at the Pakistani
Embassy in Kabul, who privately confirmed that Master Ahmad is in
Afghanistan, and that he would be provided full security and
assistance in returning to Pakistan. Even so, on September 3rd Dr
Fauzia alleges having received a phone call from the US State
Department claiming that, as the family is
“disinterested” in the child, he may be transferred to
the USA. After making a quick phone call, she found out that the
child had been taken away by people from Amiyat e Milli – an
Afghan security force.

These facts are as disturbing as they are baffling. In the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child - which Afghanistan has
ratified and the US-signed article 9, sub-article 4 states that:
‘should a child be separated from his or her parents due to
detainment, it is the obligation of the State Party to hand him or
her over to a family member’. The children’s grandmother
is in Karachi, and their maternal uncle, an American citizen in
Texas, has expressed a willingness to take them.

For the US government to first detain Master Ahmad (and possibly his
siblings) in a foreign prison, then refuse custody to the family is
not only an example of gross misconduct, but suggests that darker
intentions are in play.

This is confirmed by Ahmad’s lack of contact with the outside
world. For the first time since 2003, Dr Fauzia managed to speak with
her nephew via a mobile phone some days back, and described the
conversation. She last saw Ahmad when he was four; she took him along
to a medical conference the week before he disappeared. She reported
that they boy did not know his original name and said his name had
been changed several times, and that each time, he had been taken
somewhere else. She reported that he expressed no emotion except when
shown her photo, and that when he recognized it he said ‘I know
she is a doctor and my friend’. He reportedly requested to keep
the picture, went into a corner of the room and started to cry. The
implications of this statement are as shocking as they are confusing.

The lack of information about the boy’s condition, or that of
his siblings, leads the AHRC to call up Article 24, which demands
that State Parties recognize the right of the child to enjoy the
highest standard of health and article 37/ a): No child shall be
subjected to torture or other cruel or degrading treatment or
punishment.

The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the governments of the US,
Pakistan and Afghanistan to respect and implement the rights of
minors in the true spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, as signed/ratified by them. The child must be handed over to
the maternal family as they have requested, and responsibility for
his care and welfare must be fully accepted by his State Countries.

The AHRC condemns the lack of transparency shown in this case of Dr
Aafia and her children, and the lack of information and assistance
given to the family of the missing minor while he was in state
custody. When a child is in custody, it is the responsibility of the
state to prove that he or she is firstly, charged with a crime,
secondly, being cared for in a humane manner, and thirdly allowed
contact with his or her family.

We appeal to the international community and UN human rights
mechanisms such as the Working Group on the Rights of the Child;
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances; the Special Rapporteur on the right of
everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of
physical and mental health; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion
and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms and the
Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment, to intervene in the case of Master Mohammed
Ahmad, age 11, currently is in the detention of Afghan-American
authorities.

It should also be noted that there is increasing concern, due to
evidence given to the AHRC, that Aafia Siddiqui and the disappearance
of her three children in March 2003 was the work of various state
authorities – and that she has been in unregulated custody,
uncharged, for five years. The implications for the disappearance of
her children, and the increasing but unsubstantiated reports of
children being used as tools of interrogation and blackmail for
terrorist suspects, are beyond chilling. The international community
must keep a vigilant watch on the methods being used by all sides in
this current conflict.

# # #
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights
issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

---------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list visit
http://internal.ahrchk.net/phplist/?p=unsubscribe&uid=54f42a0e3b1a03403321658a16faa655
To update your preferences visit
http://internal.ahrchk.net/phplist/?p=preferences&uid=54f42a0e3b1a03403321658a16faa655
---------------------------------------------------

Asian Human Rights Commission
19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hongkong S.A.R.
Tel: +(852) - 2698-6339 Fax: +(852) - 2698-6367