Amnesty international brings human rights a bad name

Amnesty international brings human rights a bad name

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 04:24 AM PST

Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty’s international secretariat, based out of Britan has publicly criticised Amnesty International for allying with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. She, in an email sent to her bosses in Amensty had  criticised the organisation and said it “fundamentally damages” the organisation’s reputation. Instead of taking heed to her concerns, she was promptly suspended and the organisation chose to continue with its links with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
In a email that is now public, Sahgal, a human rights activist for several years now, charged the Amnesty International of putting the human rights of Al-Qaeda terror suspects above those of their victims. Amnesty had sided with Moazzam Begg, a former British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, and the most vocal supporter of Taliban in Britan. In an email sent to Amnesty’s top bosses, she suggests the group has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his “jihadi” group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.
Beg is known to have 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. He has also been supported and funded by the Amnesty International in his tour around Europe 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.”
Beg has been championing the cause of 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”.
A Times UK report said Sahgal, 53, is not the only one who has pointed the misgivings of Amnesty in the name of supporting human rights. In 2008 a board member of its US arm opposed Begg’s appearance, via videolink, at its AGM, but was overruled.
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.
Meanwhile, senior journalist and political commentator in India, Swapan Das Gupta, has said that this controversy could be instructive for India too. He,in an artilce published in the Times of India said "To me, this incident involves more than the misjudgment of one reputable human rights body. It is a classic case study of the derailment of the human rights industry — yes, it is an industry — and its takeover by politically-driven activists".