NO FREEDOM FOR AAFIA ON INDEPENDENCE DAY: Dr Fowzia Siddiqui
NO FREEDOM FOR AAFIA ON INDEPENDENCE DAY
Fowzia request UN to take Notice of Aafia issue
Karachi, August 13: Aafia Movement Pakistan leader Dr Fowzia Siddiqui has said that when the nation is celebrating the Independence Day, there is no freedom for the daughter of the nation, Dr Aafia Siddiqui and the government of Pakistan and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should take efforts for early release and repatriation of the Pakistani mother.
Greeting the Pakistani nation on the Independence Day and welcoming Ban Ki-moon in his visit to Pakistan, Dr Fowzia said the UN Charter guarantees respect to human rights, but sadly the human rights of Aafia are being neglected. She said Aafia as a person has also universal rights but her rights as an individual, a woman and a mother are also being neglected. She said this discrimination to the rights of a top Pakistani woman scientist and educationalist is a matter of concern. She said when the government of Pakistan, as well as, the United Nations is giving focus to promotion of female literacy and education in Pakistan a top woman educationalist, a gold medalist graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is still behind the bars. She said the freedom of Aafia would boost the cause of women education in Pakistan. She said the UNO is an independent organization, safeguarding the human rights without discrimination and it should not become a tool in the hands of imperialist powers.
Her request was simple and concise Honorable Mr Ban. Ki Moon we respectfully request your assistance, on your visit to Pakistan, to call for freedom and repatriation of our Pakistani sister Aafia Siddiqui who is currently sentenced to 86 years solitary confinement at Carswell FMC.
She reminded that she had already written to Ban Ki-moon for release of Aafia, a mother of three languishing in a US prison for a crime she did not commit. She reminded the US Secretary-General his historic words in 2007: “I grew up in war. That experience was a big part of what led me to pursue a career in public service. As Secretary-General, I am determined to see this Organization deliver tangible, meaningful results that advance peace, development and human rights.”
In her letter Fowzia also quoted his statement on Dec. 10th 2011 -Human rights belong to every one of us without exception. But unless we know them, unless we demand they be respected, and unless we defend our right — and the right of others — to exercise them, they will be just words in a decades-old document. She said it is these words and your resolve that I am taking the liberty to introduce the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui to the United Nations. Her plight as a victim of enforced disappearance, illegal rendition, and torture, is well-known, and has touched the hearts of humanitarians around the globe. She has been convicted of a crime she did not commit, she has been sentenced to eighty-six years imprisonment in a maximum security US federal prison on Carswell military base, Fort Worth, Texas—where she is currently being held in solitary confinement and virtually incommunicado.
The charges and evidence against her were carefully crafted to avoid any of the well documented evidence that agents of the United States, in collusion with the Pakistani military dictator, participated in kidnapping her and her three young children from the streets of Karachi in 2003, or any mention of witnesses who identified her as an
inmate in secret American prisons between 2003 and 2008.
She said he Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the United Nations has sworn to uphold under all costs, sets forth the rights of all human beings including Dr Aafia. For example:
Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 5. No one shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 8. Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted by the constitution or by law.
Article 9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.
Article 10. Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
She maintained that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s kidnapping, along with her three small children — and their subsequent enforced disappearance, false imprisonment, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and illegal rendition — are all facts which have now been established beyond doubt. That the United States could claim jurisdiction to try her for any crime in the face of overwhelming evidence that agencies of that government were and still are involved in criminal activity against her would also seem to violate a number of United Nations declarations concerning human rights.
She said repatriating Aafia to her homeland is a singularly comprehensive yet simple and unambiguous act. It is one that can lead to new respect for and confidence in the United Nations as an instrument of international peace and cooperation.
Fowzia said inaction of the UN on Dr Aafia Siddiqui issue is losing credibility of the UNO in Pakistan because it compels many people here to feel UN is no longer an impartial institution. She said violation is a violation regardless of who the perpetrator is.
She once again requested the Government of Pakistan and the UN Secretary-General to play their due role in early release and repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
Issued By
Aafia Movement Pakistan
