Top U.N. Official Says Pentagon's Gitmo trial of "child soldier" violates international law.

[Better Believe It]

Landmark Gitmo trial puts White House in tight spot
Top U.N. official calls defendant a 'child soldier,' says proceedings violate international legal norms
By Michael Isikoff
National investigative correspondent
NBC News
August 10, 2010

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — A top United Nations official on Tuesday denounced the Pentagon's trial of so-called "child soldier" Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay, saying the proceeding was a violation of international legal norms and "may endanger the status of child soldiers all over the world."

"Since World War II, no child has been prosecuted for a war crime," Radhika Coomaraswamy, the U.N.'s special representative for Children and Armed Conflict said in a statement distributed by the U.N. on the eve of Khadr's trial here.

"Child soldiers must be treated primarily as victims … The Omar Khadr case will set a precedent that may endanger the status of child soldiers all over the world," he said.

The sharp criticism from the U.N. official created yet another public relations dilemma for Pentagon officials as they prepare to try Khadr, a Canadian citizen who has spent nearly a third of his life at Guantanamo, in the first military commission trial during Barack Obama's presidency.

And although Coomaraswamy has issued objections to Khadr's case before, the statement came on the day a military judge will begin picking a jury to hear charges that the defendant committed murder and attempted murder in violation of the "law of war" for allegedly hurling a hand grenade that killed a U.S. Special Forces medic in Afghanistan eight years ago.

At the time of the alleged incident, Khadr, now 23, was 15 years old.

Asked for comment about the U.N. official's statement, Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the military commissions, said a military judge has already ruled that there is no age limit under the Military Commissions Act that would prevent the case against Khadr from proceeding.

In a pre-trial proceeding on Monday, the military judge presiding over the case issued a ruling that, while it will greatly help prosecutors prove their case, could also prompt further criticism.

The judge, Army Col. Pat Parrish, ruled that confessions Khadr made at Guantanamo could be heard by the jury despite pleas from his defense lawyer that the statements were extracted by FBI and military interrogators only after he was threatened with rape and torture .



Omar Khadr before he was imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.

Read the full article at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38634007/ns/us_news-security

The kid has already served 8 years in prison for allegedly engaging in an act of warfare against U.S. soldiers. President Obama should release him. I must be on hard drugs for making that suggestion! Gibbs knows. BBI

[AlabamaLibrul]

1. And since when has the US cared what the UN has to say? n/t