- CHICAGO -- Canada on Thursday
said it was not involved in a decision by the US to deport to Syria a Canadian
who US authorities suspected was a terrorist in an issue that has strained
ties between the two neighbouring countries.
-
- Maher Arar, a 33-year old computer technician who was
born in Syria, was arrested by US agents in September last year and deported
to Syria, where he alleges being tortured in jail.
-
- US officials have said they suspected Mr Arar of belonging
to the Al Qaeda terrorist organization.
-
- The issue has sparked controversy because of persistent
questions in Canada over whether senior Canadian officials were aware of
or even approved the US decision to deport one of their citizens to a country
suspected of torture. However Bill Graham, Canadian foreign minister, told
the Financial Times: "The decision with respect to Mr Arar was made
in the US on the basis of information they had from various sources - they're
not being specific as to exactly what sources - and I think that goes a
long way to satisfy, at least from a Canadian perspective, that Canadians
were not involved in the decision to deport Mr Arar to Syria."
-
- His comments, at a meeting of the Chicago Council on
Foreign Relations, came a day after Canada's solicitor general admitted
that Canada provided US intelligence with a dossier of information about
Mr Arar before his deportation, fuelling speculation of Canadian involvement.
-
- However Mr Martin said: "The US has clearly said
that any decision they made with respect to [Mr] Arar was a decision they
arrived at independently based on information they got from a whole host
of sources."
-
- Asked whether the Canadian government was aware of the
US decision to deport Mr Arar before the deportation took place, Mr Graham
said: "We had consular access to Mr Arar but we were informed by his
lawyer on the Monday morning that she had come into her office and there
was a message on her [telephone answering] machine saying Mr Arar had been
deported that night to Syria and she had not been advised, and we had not
been advised."
-
- Mr Graham said the case was not yet over because of legal
action pending from Mr Arar and a civil liberties organization in the US,
as well as a Canadian enquiry into the issue.
-
- But he said: "It's a case that illustrates to us
... we have to have the right balance between ensuring our security on
the one hand and guarding our civil liberties and our old principles of
law in the process. This case is an object lesson to us and I think we
can take it seriously and figure out how we can do better in the future."
-
- Mr Martin is a member of the cabinet of outgoing Canadian
prime minister Jean ChrÈtien, who will be succeeded by finance minister
Paul Martin after stepping down on December 12.
-
- Mr Graham said he expected Mr Martin to be "more
aggressive" than his predecessor in pushing Canadian interests abroad,
and would likely push for reform of global multilateral institutions.
-
- "He wants to see a Canadian foreign policy that
is more ambitious than our present prime minister," he said.
-
- On Friday, Canada is expected to table a resolution at
the United Nations General Assembly expressing "serious concern"
at "continuing violations of human rights" in Iran.
-
- Relations between Canada and Iran soured in July after
Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who was of Iranian descent, died
of a brain haemorrhage after being arrested for taking pictures outside
a jail in Tehran.
-
- Mr Graham said the aim of the resolution was to "focus
Iran's attention on the fact that the human rights issues in our view are
deteriorating [in Iran]. It's not just the issue of a single journalist,
it's an issue of a whole host of civil liberties in Iran".
-
- © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2003.
-
- http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com
- /StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069132042901&p=10125717271
62
|
