Observer: Democracy starts at home

[muriel_volestrangler]

Since the US and Britain invaded Iraq with the express aim of securing liberty and justice, it is incumbent on them to practise the virtues they hoped to impose through an illegal war. The contradictions implicit in that mission have surfaced in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and the case of Baha Mousa. Mr Mousa, a hotel receptionist, died in September 2003 of injuries apparently incurred while he was in the custody of British troops at a detention centre south of Basra.
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In the second test case of last week, the Law Lords ruled that holding foreign terror suspects indefinitely without trial was unlawful under the European human rights convention. As the new Home Secretary appeared to play tough, ministers talked piously about the security of the nation being their chief priority.
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We shall see, come January, whether there is the faintest chance that Iraq's elections offer a doorway to a better future. We shall also see, as Saddam's men face the law, whether a country ruled by fear and edict can demonstrate the due process supposedly exemplified by the enviable democracies of the west.

As proof that the law is inviolable, the detainees of Belmarsh and Woodhill must be released under surveillance or brought swiftly to trial under domestic statute amended to allow the production of any compelling evidence that may exist. For Charles Clarke to continue to hold prisoners in defiance of the law lords' ruling would make a mockery of British justice and, as the case moved on to Strasbourg, a fool of this administration.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1376864,00.html