Branding Denmark II - Breaking Geneva Conventions
Denmark has been breaking the Geneva convention on the treatment of prisoners of war on a number of occasions in Afghanistan in 2002. Danish troops have delivered prisoners on to the Americans, probably knowing what the Americans would do to them: expose them to torturous treatment.
The funny thing is that the Danish government won't admit it, so now it is being pressured by the opposition in parliament. The abuses have been revealed in a film by film director Guldbrandsen that was shown on Danish TV a few weeks ago. In this film American prison guards admit that the maltreatment of prisoners delivered to them by Danish soldiers took place.
The opposition in the Folketinget now demands the minister of Defence Soeren Gade to withdraw from his post, as he has been misinforming parliament in the matter. The Danish special troops in Afghanistan wear a small Danish flag on their jackets. This has been confirmed by several sources, but Soeren Gade denies it. This is important for verification of what has been going on.
The Danish government denies that there is a case. Its parliamentary support party, the right wing Danish People's party calls it a trifle. That is quite astonishing.
Is it a trifle to hand over prisoners to torture? There seems to be a dangerous slip in humanitarian thinking here. It is, however typical of the right wing DPP. It doesn't respect internationalt conventions that Denmark is signatory to. The party has on several occasions, also in matters concerning asylum seekers and refugees, declared that the conventions don't matter. Danish law is above the conventions. Actually it is the opposite. The conventions are above Danish law.
Official Denmark knew all along what was going on in Afghanistan, and how the Bush administration after 9/11 offered its own interpretation of the conventions regarding how terror suspects might be treated. The Danish foreign office warned the Danish government, when the Bush administration issued its legal interpretation of the conventions. But nobody took any notice.
Now the chickens have come home to roost, but the government still denies trespassing the conventions. Under the influence of the DPP the Danish government and its leading political parties of the Liberalists and Conservatives are getting alienated from their previously held humanitarian principles.
posted by Cosmic Duck at 10:21 AM
4 Comments:
About this so-called documentary.
The newspaper, Nyhedsavisen, has done a good job uncovering DR's lies.
A soldier in the "documetary" says:"Det særegne flag blev set på soldater, der afleverede fanger – fem, seks gange.” (the flag was seen on soldiers delivering prisoners five, six times)
But if we see the quote in its entirety:"Det unikke danske flag blev – så vidt jeg husker – måske, måske set i fangelejren medbringende fanger fem, seks gange.” (the unique flag was - as fare as i remember - maybe, maybe seen... five, six times.)
http://avisen.dk/blogs/datr/TRADS_3A00_-DR-er-fuld-af-l_F800_gn_2100_-210107.aspx
That's interesting information. There's no doubt, however, that Denmark did deliver prisoners of war to Americans. The question is only: How many times?
Here is even more examples of DR's countless lies and subjective angle.
Like:
Leaving out relevant source, who served at the time
Using source as an expert witness who wasn’t even there at the time
and lying about Søren Gade by misquoting him. The quote was that Danish soldiers in general wasn’t wearing flags, but they left out that Søren Gade said that he couldn’t rule out that some soldiers wore flags.
http://avisen.dk/alvorlige-fejl-dr-afghanistansag-220107.aspx
But of course this means nothing to Mr. Duck who hates the present government and uncritical leaps on any bandwagon who portrays the centre-right as pure evil. Any day now, Mr. Duck will surely claim that this administration is the one to blame for breaking up the Beatles.
What's important in the case is that it was general knowledge from 2002 that the US was maltreating prisoners in Afghanistan and in that way violating the Geneva conventions, and that the Danish government was warned by the Danish ministry of External Affairs about the American government's intention to look lightly at such convention breaches.
Fogh Rasmussen is so intent on pleasing the Americans that he cannot handle Danish interests in the proper manner. It's a pity for the Danes, I thing you ought to take heed of that.
Post a Comment
<< Home