PRESS RELEASE

Six years after deportation of the Algerian Group

Exactly six years’ ago, the Bosnian authorities at the time, extradited illegally the so-called “Algerian Group” to the US authorities. Since then, members of this group have been detained in the Guantanamo base prison.

Many international institutions, governmental and non-governmental, including bodies of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, have indubitably concluded that the act of extradition of the Algerian Group represented a harsh violation of human rights and freedoms. Bosnia and Herzegovina violated the international conventions it had previously committed itself to respecting, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civic and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms, and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The harshest violations committed at the time were the arbitrary and illegal dispossession of citizenships and extradition to a country with the death penalty and a threat of torture and other inhumane and degrading treatment. Moreover, Bosnia and Herzegovina has not fulfilled its obligation of ensuring release and return of these persons to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina expresses concern with the fact that the process of dispossession of citizenships in a way non-responsive to the international law and human rights standards has continued. We also condemn the announced extraditions, which are not in line with the European Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms and the Convention on the Rights of a Child, which have, along with other standards, been seriously brought into question.

The Helsinki Committee appeals to the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina once again to take all action necessary for protection of human rights of members of the so-called Algerian Group, and create such mechanisms for revision of citizenships and deportation from the country that are based on respect for human rights and freedoms, and respect for international conventions binding for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Srđan Dizdarević
Chairman of the Helsinki Committee in Bosnia and Herzegovina

No.: 05-01/2008
Sarajevo, 17 January 2008

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