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Report Chides U.S., Anti-Terror Coalition on Human Rights
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| Israel abuses
Palestinians human rights on daily basis |
WASHINGTON, Jan.
17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A major human rights group, on Wednesday,
cited new restrictions on freedom in the United States, and warned the U.S. that
its declared campaign "war on terrorism" too often inspired allies to
revoke civil liberties for political ends.
The New
York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) contained these and other findings in its
annual report, covering nearly 70 nations.
"Terrorists
believe that anything goes in the name of their cause," said Kenneth Roth,
executive director of HRW. "The fight against terror must not buy into that
logic. For too many countries, the anti-terror mantra has provided a new reason
to ignore human rights."
The report also
cited restrictions on freedom inside the United States, such as proposed
military tribunals for suspected terrorists, could compromise Washington's
ability to criticize rights abuses in other nations.
Declaring the
deadly September 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon
outside Washington as "antithetical to human rights values," the HRW
report said too many governments substituted expediency for a firm commitment to
human rights.
"As many of
the world's governments join the fight against al-Qaeda, they face a fundamental
choice," HRW stated. "They must decide whether this battle provides an
opportunity to reaffirm human rights principles or a new reason to ignore them.
They must determine whether this is a moment to embrace values governing means
as well as ends, or an excuse to subordinate means to ends.
"Unfortunately,
the coalition's conduct so far has not been auspicious," the annual report
added. "Its leading members have violated human rights principles at home
and overlooked human rights transgressions among their partners. They have
substituted expediency for the firm commitment to human rights that alone can
defeat the rationale of terrorism."
Human Rights
Watch cited the George W. Bush administration of undermining the respect for
human rights domestically through anti-terror legislation and its decision to
seek future military tribunals of suspected al-Qaeda members.
"The
so-called USA Patriot Act," said the HRW report, "permits the
indefinite detention of non-deportable non-citizens once the attorney general
'certifies' that he has 'reasonable grounds to believe' that the individual is
engaged in terrorist activities or endangers national security.
These broad and
vague criteria could allow the attorney general to certify and detain any alien
in the United States who had any connection, however tenuous or distant in time,
with a group that had once unlawfully used a weapon to endanger a person."
The human rights
watchdog added that "the virtual lack of procedural protections in the
order raised the prospect of suspects being tried, convicted, and even executed
with no appearance before an independent judicial tribunal, no right to appeal,
no right to a public trial, no presumption of innocence, no right to confront
evidence or testimony against them, and no requirement that proof be established
beyond a reasonable doubt."
Human Rights
Watch pointed out that the United States had routinely objected to similar
military tribunals in Peru, Nigeria, Russia, and elsewhere.
"By
suddenly proposing to sponsor similar travesties of justice in the face of its
own security threats," argued the HRW report, "the U.S. government
compromises its capacity to defend human rights abroad. Indeed, tomorrow's
military dictators need do nothing more than photocopy the Bush order to secure
a repressive mechanism that promises to be highly effective in warding off U.S.
criticism."
In Russia, Human
Rights Watch accused President Vladimir Putin of embracing the anti-terrorist
rhetoric to defend his government's brutal campaign in Chechnya and the West
downplaying earlier criticism of Moscow's abuses.
China took a
similar position to defend its response to political agitation in Xinjiang
province.
The HRW report
alleges that many governments have closed channels for dissent and thus
encouraged “radical” groups.
"Many of
the policies of the major powers, both before and after September 11, have
undermined efforts to build a global culture of human rights," states the
HRW annual report.
"These
governments often embraced human rights only in theory while subverting them in
practice. Reversing these policies is essential to building the strong human
rights culture needed to reject terrorism."
The HRW report
argued that "many in the [Middle East] see Western tolerance for human
rights abuse reflected in the failure to rein in Israeli abuse of Palestinians
or to restructure sanctions against Iraq to minimize the suffering of the Iraqi
people. Such policies - both closely followed in the region - suggest that the
West's commitment to human rights is one of convenience, to be forsaken when
abuses are committed by an ally or in the name of containing a foe."
The watchdog
report added that the "grievance has become all the more acute since
September 2000 as the death toll mounts from Israeli-Palestinian violence and as
Iraqi sanctions drag on with no indication that Saddam Hussein will acquiesce to
U.N. demands."
Human Rights
Watch also claimed there was a "shameful silence" by the United States
and other Western nations of abuses by governments in Saudi Arabia and Egypt
where patterns of repression seem to promise stability.
"They leave
people with the desperate choice of tolerating the status quo, exile or
violence," said the report. "Frequently, as political options are
closed off, the voices of nonviolent dissent are upstaged by a politics of
radical opposition."
Thus Saudi
Arabia and Egypt can credibly portray themselves as bulwarks against extremism
because the political center has been "systemically silenced," the
report said.
Since the
September 11 attacks, several governments touted their own domestic struggles as
fights against terrorism, the report contended.
Uzbekistan's
government, which has allied itself with the U.S.-led anti-terrorism coalition,
was singled out by the HRW reports as particularly repressive and an
illustration of the West's selectivity on human rights.
The country has
no political parties and no independent media. Muslims caught praying outside
the state-controlled mosque are tortured and given long prison sentences. The
State Department excluded Uzbekistan from its list of countries that repress
religious freedom, the report said.
In Europe, Human
Rights Watch said, too many countries stepped up anti-immigrant rhetoric and
further restricted the rights of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, in the
name of fighting terrorism.
Britain has
proposed emergency anti-terrorism legislation that would deny some asylum
seekers an individual hearing, classify as a "terrorist" any foreigner
with ill-defined "links" to terrorist organizations, and allow
authorities to indefinitely detain them.
In Hungary, all
Afghan refugees were transported to special detention facilities. In Greece,
some migrants arriving on ships were denied access to asylum procedures and
given fifteen-day expulsion orders.
"In the
long term, this trend is counterproductive," Human Rights Watch said.
"If the logic of terrorism, not just immediate terrorist threats, is
ultimately to be defeated, governments must redouble their commitment to
international standards, not indulge in a new round of excuses to ignore
them."
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