Canadian becomes first child soldier since Nuremberg to stand trial for war crimes

A boy, who was merely fifteen years old when he was detained at Guantanamo Bay, is to become the first child soldier since Nuremberg to be charged with war crimes.

Omar Khadr, a Canadian national, was 15 at the time of his alleged crimes. His defence team said his age should see him treated as a victim and rehabilitated, rather than prosecuted as a war criminal. He has had no access to education while at Guantanamo, where he has spent more than a quarter of his life.

But in a brief ruling which has now been made public, the military judge Peter Brownback rejected the plea, paving the way for trial and a new chapter in Guantanamo's history. He said international laws dealing with the treatment of child soldiers were "interesting as a matter of policy", but they did not prevent the military commission set up to try the Guantanamo inmates prosecuting Mr Khadr, who is now 21.

After the publication of the ruling, the head of Mr Khadr's defence team, Lt-Cdr William Kuebler, said the decision to go ahead with the trial was "disappointing, but not surprising".

"The judges here are under a lot of pressure," he said. "This prosecution is an embarrassment to the United States. The US has been a leader in international efforts to protect child soldiers, but we're flouting them in Omar's case."

I'm not sure what war crimes Omar is supposed to have committed as the only charge here is that he threw a grenade that killed US Delta Force soldier, Christopher Speer. Is fighting the US now considered a war crime?

And the US have accidentally released documents that revealed that although Khadr was present during the firefight, there was no other evidence that he had thrown the grenade. In fact, military officials had originally reported that another of the surviving militants had thrown the grenade just before being killed.

But, even assuming he had thrown the grenade, why does fighting the US make one a war criminal?

War criminals are people who commit war crimes, I fail to see where Khadr can be said to have committed a war crime.

Even someone as pro-Blair as our former Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, has spoken out in favour of Canada asking for Khadr to be repatriated.

The former attorney general Lord Goldsmith, who masterminded the return of the British nationals from Guantanamo, is also calling for Mr Khadr to be tried in his home country. "It's the principle that matters as far as I'm concerned," said Lord Goldsmith.

"For a long time I have felt Guantanamo Bay was not right in principle or practice. But I think that is accentuated in the case of someone who was a child at the time, and different considerations therefore apply in how they are dealt with. I would support Omar's return to Canada, and for Canada to deal with him within their law."

The US is now charging children with war crimes, and appears to be saying that fighting the US is, in itself, a war crime.

I presume this is because, having travelled to defend fellow Muslims in Afghanistan, the US are claiming that Khadr shares the aims of Osama bin Laden and, I presume, a share of responsibility for bin Laden's crimes.

This is an utterly bizarre concept. Bill Clinton has famously said that he would die in a ditch defending Israel; were Bill to fight in a ditch on Israel's behalf, would he share a responsibility for Olmert dropping cluster bombs on Lebanon? An act which many of us considered a war crime.

Of course he wouldn't. So why is Khadr being charged with war crimes?

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Tags: Omar Khadr, war on terror, Afghanistan, United States, Guantanamo Bay, child soldiers, Bill Clinton, Israel