Author: Richard Kerbaj
Publication: The Times
Date: February 7, 2010
URL: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7017810.ece
An official at the human rights charity deplores
its work with a 'jihadist'
A SENIOR official at Amnesty International
has accused the charity of putting the human rights of Al-Qaeda terror suspects
above those of their victims.
Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty's
international secretariat, believes that collaborating with Moazzam Begg,
a former British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, "fundamentally damages"
the organisation's reputation.
In an email sent to Amnesty's top bosses,
she suggests the charity has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his "jihadi"
group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.
Sahgal describes Begg as "Britain's most
famous supporter of the Taliban". He has championed the rights of jailed
Al-Qaeda members and hate preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged
spiritual mentor of the Christmas Day Detroit plane bomber.
Amnesty's work with Cageprisoners took it
to Downing Street last month to demand the closure of Guantanamo Bay. Begg
has also embarked on a European tour, hosted by Amnesty, urging countries
to offer safe haven to Guantanamo detainees. This is despite concerns about
former inmates returning to terrorism.
Sahgal, who has researched religious fundamentalism
for 20 years, has decided to go public because she feels Amnesty has ignored
her warnings for the past two years about the involvement of Begg in the charity's
Counter Terror With Justice campaign.
"I believe the campaign fundamentally
damages Amnesty International's integrity and, more importantly, constitutes
a threat to human rights," Sahgal wrote in an email to the organisation's
leaders on January 30. "To be appearing on platforms with Britain's most
famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender,
is a gross error of judgment."
Amnesty is the world's biggest human rights
organisation with 2.2m members and a galaxy of celebrity supporters, including
Bono, John Cleese, Yoko Ono, Al Pacino and Sinead O'Connor. Its decision to
work with Begg poses liberal backers with a moral dilemma and raises questions
about the direction in which Amnesty has travelled since it was set up in
1961 to support "prisoners of conscience".
"As a former Guantanamo detainee it was
legitimate to hear his experiences, but as a supporter of the Taliban it was
absolutely wrong to legitimise him as a partner," Sahgal told The Sunday
Times.
Begg, 42, from Birmingham, was held at Guantanamo
for three years until 2005 under suspicion of links to Al-Qaeda, which he
denies. Prior to his arrest, Begg lived with his family in Kabul and praised
the Taliban in his memoirs as "better than anything Afghanistan has had
in 20 years". After his release Begg became the figurehead for Cageprisoners,
which describes itself as "a human rights organisation that exists solely
to raise awareness of the plight of prisoners ... held as part of the War
On Terror".
Among the Muslim inmates it highlights are
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Abu Hamza,
the hook-handed cleric facing extradition from Britain to America on terror
charges, and Abu Qatada, a preacher described as Osama Bin Laden's "European
ambassador".
Sahgal, 53, is not the only critic of Begg
at Amnesty. In 2008 a board member of its US arm opposed Begg's appearance,
via videolink, at its AGM, but was overruled.
When Begg appeared at Downing Street last
month as part of a group delivering a letter to Gordon Brown calling for the
release of the last British resident held at Guantanamo, he was accompanied
by Kate Allen, head of Amnesty's UK section since 2000. Allen is a leftwinger
who was the girlfriend of Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London, for
almost 20 years.
This weekend Amnesty said it had launched
an internal inquiry after Sahgal raised her concerns with bosses, including
Allen and Claudio Cordone, the interim secretary-general.
Anne Fitzgerald, policy director of Amnesty's
international secretariat, said the charity had formed a relationship with
Begg because he was a "compelling speaker" on detention. She said
he had been paid expenses for his attendance at its events.
Asked if she thought Begg was a human rights
advocate, Fitzgerald said: "It's something you'd have to speak to him
about. I don't have the information to answer that."
Yesterday Begg dismissed Sahgal's claims as
"ridiculous". He defended his support for the Taliban and the decision
by Cageprisoners to highlight the plight of detainees linked to Al-Qaeda:
"We need to be engaging with those people who we find most unpalatable.
I don't consider anybody a terrorist until they have been charged and convicted
of terrorism."
