Amnesty accused of campaigning with ‘Taliban supporter’

LONDON - Gita Sahgal, the head of Amnesty International’s gender unit has accused the human rights group of damaging its global standing by campaigning alongside a former Guantanamo Bay inmate she described as Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban”.

Sahgal told Amnesty directors in an email that its campaign involving Mozzam Begg, one of three Britons released from Guantanamo Bay in 2005, fundamentally damages Amnesty International’s integrity and, more importantly, constitutes a threat to human rights.

While Amnesty’s demanding the closure of Guantanamo Bay, Begg has embarked on an Amensty-hosted European tour, urging countries to offer safe havens to Guantanamo detainees.

To be appearing on platforms with Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is a gross error of judgement, the Sunday Times quoted Sahgal’s email as saying.

Begg has championed the rights of jailed suspected Al Qaeda members and radical preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual mentor of the man who made an abortive bid to blow up a plane over Detroit in December 2009.

Sahgal accused Amnesty of ignoring her warnings for the past two years against involving Begg in its Counter Terror With Justice campaign.

As a former Guantanamo detainee it was legitimate to hear his experiences, but as a supporter of the Taliban it was absolutely wrong to legitimise him as a partner, Sahgal told The Sunday Times.

Amnesty said it had launched an internal inquiry after Sahgal raised her concerns but involved Begg in its campaign because he is a compelling speaker on issues of detention.

Begg dismissed Sahgal’s claims as ridiculous, telling the newspaper: We need to be engaging with those people who we find most unpalatable. I don’t consider anybody a terrorist until they have been charged and convicted of terrorism.