On Air: Can a child soldier commit a war crime?
| 18:00 UK time, Wednesday, 11 August 2010
This issue was discussed on WHYS on 11 August 2010. .
Pauline, who listens to WHYS in San Francisco emailed us about yesterday.
The first military trial under Obama at Guantanamo has begun. Canadian Omar Khadr, a former child combatant, is the only person in modern history to be tried for war crimes that he allegedly committed as a minor. Canadian citizen Khadr, now 23, is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier during a gun battle in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15. He alleges that he was tortured into confessing to the murder.
There is also debate over the trial taking place as US President Barack Obama had pledged to close the detention camp by January this year
Karen Greenberg from the Centre on Law and Security at New York University had this to say:
"The idea of the child soldier is that they really are not making the decisions that they make; that they are coerced into it, or brought up into it, and that's what they will probably argue."
UN envoy, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said the trial would set a dangerous precedent for child soldiers worldwide.
Meanwhile military officers in the jury pool indicated that they saw no problem with trying Mr Khadr.
Prosecutor Jeff Groharing asked them.
"Does anyone believe that juveniles should not be prosecuted for violent offences?"
"Does anyone feel the accused should be held to a different standard because he was 15 years old at the time of the alleged offences?"
None of the jury members said they held those beliefs.
The judge, Col Patrick Parrish, said the jury could consider the age of the defendant at the time of his alleged crime.
"It's certainly something you may consider in deciding whether the government has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt,"
Where do you stand? Should Omar Khadr stand trial at Guantanamo?
