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The circle of rendition

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press

Saturday April 21, 2007 17:56

by Clive Stafford Smith

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The great-grandfather of a Muslim man held in Guantanamo was likewise held without trial and tortured by a colonial superpower

Amir Yakoub Mohammed Al Amir Mahmoud is from Sudan and is a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay. For him, extraordinary rendition has come full circle. British colonial powers held his great-grandfather over a century ago and he is in the hands of US authorities today.

On 25 January 1885, General Charles Gordon died trying to maintain British control over Sudan.
A clamour to avenge Gordon's death and re-establish British dominance in Sudan followed, but despite Britain's superiority in military technology, this wasn't easy. Eventually, on 2 September 1898, Colonel (later Lord) Kitchener wreaked revenge at the Battle of Omdurman. The Khalifa's army, betrayed by rival Sudanese Muslims, charged Kitchener's Maxim guns with desperate but futile valour. The day lost, the Khalifa refused to save himself, but sat awaiting death on his prayer rug as his enemies closed in.

Many of the Khalifa's family were captured. One such prisoner was the great-grandfather of the Guantanamo detainee Amir Yakoub. Al Amir Mahmoud wad Ahmed was the Khalifa's cousin. The 19th-century abuse of Amir Mahmoud began with minor humiliation: he was brought bare-headed before Kitchener. Kitchener then despatched (or, in modern terms, rendered) him, along with many Sudanese civilians, to Egypt where they were held in a prison called Abbasiyah.

Clive Stafford Smith is the legal director of Reprieve, a UK charity that provides front-line investigation and legal representation to prisoners denied justice by powerful governments across the world, from death row to Guantanamo Bay. He writes this column monthly. Contact Reprieve at PO Box 52742, London EC4P 4WS. Tel: 020 7353 4640. http://www.reprieve.org.uk

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