The Hypocritical Superiority of the Socially Enlightened Among Us
The Federal Court of Canada has ruled that a former member of an elite Russian anti-terrorism governmental organization is inadmissible for refugee status in Canada because he is said to have been complicit in crimes against humanity. Alexandr Petrov has been living in Canada for five of his 36 years, awaiting the ruling of the Immigration and Refugee Board. His refugee claim was spurned last year by the Board. As a member of the special police unit known as Vityaz, operating in the Caucuses against guerrillas advancing their determination to establish an Islamic state in Chechnya, his claim was invalidated by the aura that operation has marked him with.
Mr. Petrov's appeal for refugee status, to allow him to remain in Canada, was turned down not because he personally committed abuses against prisoners, but because he was a member of a police unit whose job it was to combat and capture Chechen terror suspects and transfer them to the keeping of the FSB, Russia's federal security service. The FSB is suspected of having engaged in torture: "Even if we accept that Mr. Petrov was never personally the one to inflict the pain or actually participate in the gross human rights violations, he must have been aware of the atrocities committed by the organization of which he was an integral part," the court stated.
Chechnya's guerrillas, some of whose members include those who have trained at al Qaeda camps, are well known for their determination and barbarity. Their indiscriminate and deadly attacks on Russian targets have received more than sufficient coverage around the world to persuade even the least aware spectator of world events that their methods go well beyond the acceptable pale of 'liberation struggle'. These are the brave souls who were involved in the Moscow theatre siege and the Beslin school massacre of innocent children held hostage to their demands for sovereignty.
Mr. Petrov served in the Department of Criminal Investigations in Tartarstan, assigned to a 43-member unit and tasked to search for the Chechen guerrilla leader Shamil Bassayev on whose orders the above-noted atrocities, among others, were carried out. Throughout his stay, Mr. Petrov was a member of the battalion attached to the Ministry of Internal Affairs involved in military operations, including the arrest of rebels and the 'neutralizing' of terrorist groups. Of the original 43-member force, only 28 were still alive by the time the mission ended, two months later. At which time Mr. Petrov was cited for bravery, and later resigned from the police force.
In the defence of his refugee status appeal, Mr. Petrov has claimed the surviving members of Vityaz were deliberately and systematically 'eliminated' because they were eyewitness to events in the region; Russian security forces having been accused of wartime excesses in their battle against the guerrillas. He came to Canada seeking refuge, in fear for his life should he remain in Russia. He is deemed by the Federal Court to have played a supporting role to the functions of the Ministry of the Interior, therefore complicit in crimes against humanity committed by the Russian police and FSB.
Another country, another political system, another war on terror, another time in history. Canada has never faced anything quite like the everpresent threat against its security that Russia has, with a history of rebel groups bombing innocent civilians to illustrate the seriousness of their mission, and to grab the attention of the authorities. When, decades ago, Canada faced a mini-insurrection in Quebec when a small group of separatists placed bombs in mailboxes and abducted a British diplomat and abducted and murdered a Quebec politician, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau brought in the War Measures Act.
People were arrested and imprisoned outside the legality of existing laws, enabling their actions to take away peoples' freedom on mere suspicion of wrong-doing. A hue and cry arose from the left-wing intelligentsia in the country about the criminal reaction of the government and Canada's military. The scale of the mini-insurrection was not to be compared with the wide-ranging and truly deadly assaults that Russia has faced from Islamists from within. Russia is, to begin with, a state with a history and a social culture completely at variance with that of a social democracy like Canada. As a state, herself not averse to a certain level of brutality.
For Canada to stand proud and tall on the merits of its protection of human rights when its back has never been shoved to the wall, meriting like response, is a sham. "We're pleased to report that Canada is keeping up its commitment to its war crimes program in denying safe haven to war criminals," said Anna Pape, spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, which intervened in Mr. Petrov's refugee case.
Give me a break. Canada's record on seeking justice in war crime apprehensions and trials has been a complete and total failure, from its history of giving safe harbour to Nazi war criminals, to those of African human-rights abusers and everything in between. Canada talks a good line, but its commitment and efficacy in prosecuting human rights abusers (the current show trial in Montreal aside) has been truly pathetic.
To now trumpet its morals and values through a symbolic victimization of this man makes a mockery of the truth, yet signals Canada's proud record of failure. Protector of human rights? By whose reckoning, if Mr. Petrov's rejection is a case in point.
Mr. Petrov's appeal for refugee status, to allow him to remain in Canada, was turned down not because he personally committed abuses against prisoners, but because he was a member of a police unit whose job it was to combat and capture Chechen terror suspects and transfer them to the keeping of the FSB, Russia's federal security service. The FSB is suspected of having engaged in torture: "Even if we accept that Mr. Petrov was never personally the one to inflict the pain or actually participate in the gross human rights violations, he must have been aware of the atrocities committed by the organization of which he was an integral part," the court stated.
Chechnya's guerrillas, some of whose members include those who have trained at al Qaeda camps, are well known for their determination and barbarity. Their indiscriminate and deadly attacks on Russian targets have received more than sufficient coverage around the world to persuade even the least aware spectator of world events that their methods go well beyond the acceptable pale of 'liberation struggle'. These are the brave souls who were involved in the Moscow theatre siege and the Beslin school massacre of innocent children held hostage to their demands for sovereignty.
Mr. Petrov served in the Department of Criminal Investigations in Tartarstan, assigned to a 43-member unit and tasked to search for the Chechen guerrilla leader Shamil Bassayev on whose orders the above-noted atrocities, among others, were carried out. Throughout his stay, Mr. Petrov was a member of the battalion attached to the Ministry of Internal Affairs involved in military operations, including the arrest of rebels and the 'neutralizing' of terrorist groups. Of the original 43-member force, only 28 were still alive by the time the mission ended, two months later. At which time Mr. Petrov was cited for bravery, and later resigned from the police force.
In the defence of his refugee status appeal, Mr. Petrov has claimed the surviving members of Vityaz were deliberately and systematically 'eliminated' because they were eyewitness to events in the region; Russian security forces having been accused of wartime excesses in their battle against the guerrillas. He came to Canada seeking refuge, in fear for his life should he remain in Russia. He is deemed by the Federal Court to have played a supporting role to the functions of the Ministry of the Interior, therefore complicit in crimes against humanity committed by the Russian police and FSB.
Another country, another political system, another war on terror, another time in history. Canada has never faced anything quite like the everpresent threat against its security that Russia has, with a history of rebel groups bombing innocent civilians to illustrate the seriousness of their mission, and to grab the attention of the authorities. When, decades ago, Canada faced a mini-insurrection in Quebec when a small group of separatists placed bombs in mailboxes and abducted a British diplomat and abducted and murdered a Quebec politician, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau brought in the War Measures Act.
People were arrested and imprisoned outside the legality of existing laws, enabling their actions to take away peoples' freedom on mere suspicion of wrong-doing. A hue and cry arose from the left-wing intelligentsia in the country about the criminal reaction of the government and Canada's military. The scale of the mini-insurrection was not to be compared with the wide-ranging and truly deadly assaults that Russia has faced from Islamists from within. Russia is, to begin with, a state with a history and a social culture completely at variance with that of a social democracy like Canada. As a state, herself not averse to a certain level of brutality.
For Canada to stand proud and tall on the merits of its protection of human rights when its back has never been shoved to the wall, meriting like response, is a sham. "We're pleased to report that Canada is keeping up its commitment to its war crimes program in denying safe haven to war criminals," said Anna Pape, spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, which intervened in Mr. Petrov's refugee case.
Give me a break. Canada's record on seeking justice in war crime apprehensions and trials has been a complete and total failure, from its history of giving safe harbour to Nazi war criminals, to those of African human-rights abusers and everything in between. Canada talks a good line, but its commitment and efficacy in prosecuting human rights abusers (the current show trial in Montreal aside) has been truly pathetic.
To now trumpet its morals and values through a symbolic victimization of this man makes a mockery of the truth, yet signals Canada's proud record of failure. Protector of human rights? By whose reckoning, if Mr. Petrov's rejection is a case in point.
Labels: Canada
posted by Pieface | 5:03 PM
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