|
U.S. State Dept. Names Iran Among Worst Violators
By Jim Lobe
03/11/06 -- WASHINGTON, Mar 8 (IPS) - Releasing the latest edition
of its annual human rights "Country Reports", the U.S. State
Department Wednesday named Iran and China as among the world's "most
systematic human rights violators" in 2005, along with North Korea,
Burma, Zimbabwe, Cuba and Belarus.
In a 16-page introduction, the report also singled out the human
rights performances of Syria, Sudan, Nepal, Russia and Venezuela as
particularly problematic through the year, even as it praised what
it called "major progress" in Iraq, as well as advances in
Afghanistan, Colombia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Burundi and Liberia.
"In Iraq 2005 was a year of major progress for democracy, democratic
rights and freedom," according to the introduction, citing the
"steady growth of NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and other
civil society associations that promote human rights", as well as
the holding of two elections and one constitutional plebiscite.
At the same time, however, it conceded that the country's new
institutions "remained under intense strain from the widespread
violence" committed by insurgents and "terrorist elements", as well
as "sectarian militias and security forces" acting "independently of
government authority".
The latest edition of the Country Reports, which were first mandated
by Congress in 1976, covers the human rights situations of nearly
200 countries in 2005 and stretches more than 3,000 pages in length.
The publication, which is based on reporting by other governments,
international and local NGOs, journalists, academics and U.S.
diplomats, is widely considered the world's single most
comprehensive accounting of rights conditions in specific countries.
At the same time, the report is focused almost exclusively on
political and civil rights and rights to personal integrity. It
generally ignores those rights contained in the U.N. Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which has never been ratified
by the United States.
As in the past, this year's edition does not address rights
conditions in the United States or in U.S.-controlled facilities
overseas, such as detention centres at the Guantanamo Bay naval base
and in Afghanistan where Washington has been holding suspects in its
"war on terror" in conditions that some human-rights monitors,
including several U.N. Special Rapporteurs, have said amount to
"torture".
That omission has been cited by critics as evidence of hypocrisy and
double standards. "This report by the U.S. government provides a
thorough review of today's human rights practices around the globe,
except for one glaring omission -- its own record," said William
Schulz, director of the U.S. section of Amnesty International.
"The United States government considers itself a moral leader on
human rights issues, but its record of indefinite and arbitrary
detentions, secret 'black sites' and outsourced torture in the 'war
on terror' turns it from leader to human rights violator," said
Schulz.
Amnesty cited cases where suspected terrorists held by the U.S. were
transferred, or "rendered", to authorities in countries, including
Egypt and Jordan, that are accused in the report of routinely using
torture against prisoners held for security-related offences.
"This is a serious gap," said Elisa Massimino, Washington director
of Human Rights First. Several years ago, she noted, the State
Department instructed drafters of the Country Reports not to include
actions taken by other governments at Washington's request.
"That instruction was later withdrawn, but the absence of reporting
this year on abuses in which the U.S. is implicated raises questions
about whether it continues to skew reporting," she told IPS.
She added that the report's failure to name a U.S.-created
anti-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, in Indonesia in an otherwise
extensive section on police abuses there raised similar questions
about reporting on foreign forces closely tied to the U.S.
While the Country Reports avoid comparing the rights practices of
different states, the introduction often singles out specific
countries, normally those with which the U.S. has hostile or
ambivalent relations, for special censure.
In last year's report, for example, the introduction focused on six
nations -- North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Belarus, Zimbabwe and Burma --
which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had labeled "outposts of
tyranny". It also sharply criticised two key allies in the "war on
terror" -- Saudi Arabia, which escaped any mention in this year's
introduction, and Uzbekistan, with which relations have been
severely strained over past year due to a massacre by government
forces of hundreds of peaceful demonstrators last May.
This year's introduction noted that Tashkent's human rights record,
"already poor, worsened considerably in 2005".
But Uzbekistan was not included in the worst or six categories of
rights-abusing nations -- those "in which power is concentrated in
the hands of unaccountable rulers (that) tend to be the world's most
systematic human rights violators".
Leading that group, according to the introduction, were North Korea,
"which remained one of the world's most isolated countries"; Burma,
"where a junta rules by diktat"; and Iran, whose "government's
already poor record on human rights and democracy worsened (in
2005)" in part due to the election of a "hard-line president (who)
denied the Holocaust occurred and called for the elimination of
Israel".
Also included in the "most systematic" list were Zimbabwe, whose
"government maintained a steady assault on human dignity and basic
freedoms"; Cuba, where "the regime continued to control all aspects
of life"; China, where dissidents "faced harassment, detention, and
imprisonment by government and security authorities"; and Belarus,
whose president "continued to arrogate all power to himself and his
dictatorial regime".
A second category of countries -- those whose systematic abuses "of
their own people are likely to pose threats to neighbouring
countries and the international community" -- included Burma, North
Korea, Iran and Syria, according to the report. It argued that the
alleged interference of the latter two in the affairs of their
neighbours, including support for groups that Washington deems
"terrorist", were related to their purported denial of fundamental
rights to their own citizens.
A third group of countries -- those that commit the most serious
abuses within the context of armed conflict -- included Sudan, which
Washington has charged with committing genocide in Darfur; Nepal,
whose "poor human rights record worsened (in 2005) as a result of
violence by both the government and Maoist insurgents"; Cote
D'Ivoire; and in Chechnya and elsewhere in Russia's northern
Caucasus region.
A fourth group -- those "where civil society and independent media
are under siege" -- included Cambodia, China, Zimbabwe, Venezuela,
Belarus and Russia, according to the report.
The introduction also cited countries, besides Iraq and Afghanistan,
for positive developments in the course of the year.
While civil war-related abuses and official impunity persisted in
Colombia, the report noted that the government's counter-insurgency
operations and ongoing demobilisation of paramilitary groups had led
to a reduction in killings and kidnapping.
It also said the rights situation in the Great Lakes region of
Central Africa had "improved markedly" in 2005, permitting the
return of tens of thousands of displaced people, particularly
Burundians, to their homes.
In the same vein, it welcomed advances in Ukraine after last year's
"Orange Revolution"; Indonesia, where the peace accord between the
government and the Free Aceh Movement ended decades of armed
conflict; Lebanon, where Syrian forces were withdrawn in the face of
domestic and international pressure; and Liberia, where Africa's
first elected female head of state, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf,
marked "a milestone in the country's transition from civil war to
democracy. (END/2006)
Click below to post a comment on this article
(In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational purposes.
Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the
originator of this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.) |
