22nd February 2009

SHURA CONDEMNS OBAMA’S EXPANDED TARGET IN PAKISTAN AND DENIAL OF BAGRAM PRISONER’S RIGHTS

Secretariat for Ulama Assembly of Asia (S.H.U.R.A) registers its strong condemnation by the recent Obama’s administration broadened target on alleged militant network in Pakistan.

We are outraged by the blatant missile assault in the US military campaign using drone aircraft recently targeting the Baitullah Mehsud camp.

The execution of an increased deployment of combat troops to Afghanistan by Obama’s is a clear sign of non-shifting of Bush’s policy of interfering in Afghanistan’s sovereignty under the pretext of “war against terror”.

SHURA demands that US military interference and campaign in Afghanistan must be halted and all foreign troops withdraw unconditionally.

Any peace mission in a warring nation must be done through a UN mandate and US has no legal right to use its military power to bulldoze into any nation.

SHURA also adamantly opposes and condemns the denial of the Bagram Air base prisoners by the recent Obama’s Justice Department decision that the 600 Afghanistan detainees have no constitutional rights.

This is an outright indication of the new US administration that shows no shift of policy on the illegal detention of foreign suspect.

Imposing US rule on foreign citizens violates international law.

SHURA questions the US position , since in the middle of 2008 , the Supreme Court gave the suspect held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay the right to challenge their detention.

The Bagram prisoners should be given equal rights to challenge their detention by the US authorities.

SHURA demands that they must be freed unless charged and must be given access to contact an attorney. We question on what basis are the detainees at Bagram determined as “enemy combatant”?

SHURA call on all Muslims and Human Rights Lawyers to take up the plight of the unlawful detention of the Afghans in the Bagram naval base to the prison to the international court of Justice. US must not be left on its own to deny the basic human rights of any citizen as it pleases.



Abdul Ghani Shamsudin

Chairman SHURA