Maher Arar receives Human Rights Award
Maher Arar received a U.S. Human Rights award for his fight for justice in torture cases.
Actress Vanessa Redgrave hailed Canadian Maher Arar as a man of courage Wednesday before she presented him with a human rights award that he didn’t dare to accept in person as it’s unclear whether he could safely enter the United States.
Arar broke down in tears during a videotaped acceptance speech at the National Press Club, when he was described the beatings he endured during 10 months spent mostly in a filthy “grave” in Syria.
Redgrave, who has been active in defending Guantanamo Bay detainees, said it’s time Americans take Arar off their watch lists and conduct their own inquiry into why he was detained in New York as a terror suspect in 2002 and deported to Syria to be tortured.
“He’s a very brave man,” Redgrave said in an interview. “He must have realized that trying to get justice for himself was absolutely necessary if it wasn’t to happen to other people.”
Arar said the award “means there are Americans who are truly concerned about the future of America.”
“We now know that my story is not a unique one. Over the past two years we have heard from many other people who have been kidnapped, unlawfully detained, tortured and eventually released without being charged with any crime in any country.”
Arar, despite being exonerated by a three-year Canadian inquiry and cleared of any terrorist links, says he’s worried he’s still on U.S. watch lists and will be detained again if he enters the United States.
John Cavanagh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies which honoured Arar for his help in galvanizing a global movement against torture and the U.S. policy known as extraordinary rendition, said he wrote to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to ask that Arar be removed from the no-fly list.
“I am, alas, not surprised that I received no reply.”
Gonzales, said Redgrave, has “turned justice upside down.”
A Justice Department spokesman said he couldn’t answer questions Wednesday about the U.S. no-fly list. And a spokeswoman with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said the agency won’t confirm whether Arar is on the list or not.
Arar, who participated by telephone in an afternoon news conference at the policy institute, said he wants U.S. officials to accept the findings of the Canadian report and remove his name and his wife’s from the list.
“First they will have to acknowledge what they did was wrong and, second, they have to hold those people accountable.”
Arar, who’s appealing a U.S. lawsuit that was dismissed by a federal judge, said he has just one simple question for President George W. Bush.
“Knowing that Syria tortures people . . . why did they send me to that country?”
The report from Justice Dennis O’Connor said U.S. officials, acting on faulty intelligence from Canadians, violated the Vienna convention on Consular Relations by shipping Arar off to Syria without telling Canada.
Canada lodged an official complaint this month about Arar’s deportation, noting O’Connor found the U.S. government had “not been candid and truthful” about the case.
“The responsibility is shared between the Canadian officials and American authorities,” said Arar, who is also seeking compensation from Canada for his ordeal.
“I think everyone recognizes so far I have lost four years of my life. I have not been able to find a job. Hopefully we’ll be able to reach some kind of fair settlement with the government.”
“He must have compensation,” Redgrave told the news conference. “If your rights are acknowledged, that’s a great victory … but you can’t live.”
Redgrave also blasted leaks to the media containing false allegations against Arar upon his return.
The smear campaign, she said, “was another kind of torture.”
“The press can lie,” she said.
While applauding Canada for holding a thorough inquiry, she said the entire report should be published, with nothing held back for security reasons.
Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said it’s perhaps not surprising that U.S. officials haven’t publicly said they deported an innocent man.
“If they acknowledge there’s one mistake like Maher Arar, then the whole program goes under,” said Ratner.
The centre was also acknowledged by the institute for its work on Arar’s case and its 40-year crusade against torture and other human rights abuses,
The Letelier-Moffitt International Human Rights Award is named for Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier, who was critical of the Pinochet regime, and American fundraiser Ronni Moffitt. They were killed in a 1976 car bomb in Washington.
Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, said Ratner, the United States “has begun to water down the term torture” and make it acceptable.
“When the lead country in the world does that, what do you say to the next Pinochet when he says: ‘I have to torture in the name of national security.’ We have set the U.S. and the world back 500 years.”
Arar recounted some of his horrible ordeal during his acceptance speech, saying “life in the cell was impossible” and he contemplated suicide as soon as he realized he was in Syria.
The beatings were so painful, he said, that “I forgot every moment I enjoyed in my life.”
“Since my release, I have been suffering from anxiety, constant fear and depression. My life will never be the same again. But I promised myself one thing, that I will continue my quest for justice as long as I have a breath.”
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