REMEMBERING THE FORGOTTEN

Today is Remembrance Day in much of the world — Veterans’ Day in the US. It is a day to remember those that gave their lives to protect the personal freedoms that are the crucial, fragile membrane between our world of hope and promise, and the endless hell on Earth that those that are not yet free (see map) face every day. We thank our veterans for their bravery and their sacrifice, lament our governments’ neglect to compensate them properly for their selfless service, and support them in their continuing struggle for fair treatment.

Today might also be an appropriate day to remember those that suffer the most in the lands that are not free. Of all the millions, billions who can only dream of a life, and freedoms, that we take too much for granted, those that suffer the most are the victims of torture, the ‘disappeared’, the kidnapped, innocent opponents of ruthless oppressors. These forgotten people live a life worse than death.

Two Canadian cases have brought this ghastly reality home in the last week. Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen returning home from a family vacation was detained at Kennedy Airport in New York, without access to Canadian officials or legal counsel, and was deported by the US to Syria where he was kept in hellish conditions and tortured for over a year until he confessed to terrorist training in Afghanistan. He was released due to intense international pressure and extraordinary lobbying efforts by his wife, but claims many others are still being held and tortured daily. And this is in a country that the US claims is ‘soft on terror’.

Another Canadian citizen, William Sampson, faced two and a half years of similar treatment at the hands of the Saudi authorities. He was arrested while working there, and forced to sign a trumped-up confession to terrorist activity, and sentenced to death. Sampson today pleaded for international attention to those cruelly and often arbitrarily abused in foreign prisons, saying that he felt it was his duty to help those who ìdo not have anyone to act on their behalf. Do not have anyone to support them. Someone, somewhere, is screaming alone.”

Canadian authorities were aware of the atrocious behaviour of the Saudis but relied on prolonged diplomatic means to get his release, for fear that he would be executed before he was released, as happened recently to Canadian detainees in Iran and China. Canadian Zahra Kazemi, a photo-journalist, was tortured and beaten to death earlier this year in an Iranian prison for taking pictures without authorization. Several Canadians were among hundreds, perhaps thousands tortured to death in Chinese prisons in the most recent crackdown against dissidents.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Amnesty International reports torture, arrest without charge and other violations of basic human rights are common in over eighty different countries. The US government, in addition to the flagrant rights violations at Guantanamo, routinely and arbitrarily deports innocent, law-abiding citizens of many countries to their country of birth, knowing that as refugees they face torture and death there.

As you remember our veterans today, and the principles they fought for, please also remember those that languish, forgotten and horrendously abused, in the torture-filled prisons of the world. You can support Amnesty International with a financial contribution, or by participating in their letter-writing campaigns. For some, your help could be the difference between life and a fate far worse than death.