|
Human Rights Groups Urge Caution Before U.S. Goes to War
WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Human rights groups are urging U.S. President George W. Bush to use extreme caution in proceeding with his "new war on terrorism," and to ensure that international standards of humanitarian law are not violated.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a letter to the president Thursday calling on the U.S. government to remain vigilant regarding certain policies.
"…We write to caution against ill-considered changes to U.S. law and policy that would put at risk the basic rights that were so brazenly flouted a week ago," the letter said.
HRW specifically addressed the call to lift the ban on assassinations and the recruitment of CIA sources who have records of serious human rights abuses.
"A policy of assassination poses a dangerous risk of backfiring - the United States as an open society is particularly vulnerable in this regard - and is obviously a blatant violation of the right to life," the letter said.
Although HRW explained that in a state of armed conflict, humanitarian law would not prevent the targeting of opposing forces and their commanders, the group asked that the U.S. adhere to national and international criminal justice regulations that "flatly prohibit executing anyone in actual or effective custody or targeting anyone who is not a combatant.
"To flout this prohibition during armed conflict would be a war crime," HRW said.
The group also cautioned that the U.S. government could be in danger of sanctioning human rights abuses by recruiting intelligence sources who are participating in such abuses.
"When an individual involved in ongoing violent abuse is put on the CIA payroll, there is a substantial risk that he will read his relationship with the United States as tacitly condoning his pattern of conduct," HRW said.
Although this would not be as much of a risk in the recruitment of domestic sources, HRW worried that "the risk is quite real in the case of officials in abusive governments that might be enlisted in efforts to combat terrorism."
"Both the rules and practice of the CIA should continue to discourage relationships with abusive informants whenever it is possible that the informant will understand the relationship to suggest tacit approval of an abusive course of conduct," the letter said.
HRW warned that after a tragedy of such immense scope, there may be a tendency to resort to any means necessary to achieve justice - which is where the line between justice and revenge becomes blurred.
"…The easy way offers no way out of the crisis that the United States has faced since September 11," the letter concluded. "All it does is threaten the very values that came under attack that day.
"Those are the basic democratic values we should now be redoubling our efforts to defend."
The same sentiment has been echoed in recent press releases from Amnesty International, a human rights group based in London, whose secretary general, Irene Khan, wrote in a letter to U.N. Security Council President Ambassador Jean-David Levitte: "As an international community we can choose a path which honors our highest values and respects the human rights of all people, or one that seeks revenge and allows the perpetrators to set the moral tone of the world's agenda."
Khan expressed her concern that every possible method of finding and bringing the perpetrators of last Tuesday's "massive human rights violation" be exhausted before armed conflict is engaged.
"We strongly urge the Security Council to ensure that in the search for justice, states exhaust all measures to apprehend and prosecute the suspected perpetrators without risking the lives, well-being or human rights of civilian populations," she wrote.
"I hope you will agree that only responses based on full respect for human rights and humanitarian principles and in accordance with the United Nations Charter can promote sustained international cooperation and solidarity globally at this difficult time."
"The perpetrators must be brought to justice but it will only be justice if the means by which it is achieved are in themselves just and uphold the human rights of all people," she concluded.
Amnesty and HRW both were among more than 150 organizations whose representatives gathered with professors and scientists at the National Press Club in Washington to express their support for a declaration "in defense of freedom".
The declaration provides ten statements on dealing with the aftermath of the terror attacks on individual, local, national and global levels, and reflects the same commitment to upholding the most cherished values of a democratic society.
"We need to ensure that actions by our government uphold the principles of a democratic society, accountable government and international law, and that all decisions are taken in a manner consistent with the Constitution," the declaration states.
The declaration also expresses a firm conviction that "we can… in times of war and of peace, reconcile the requirements of security with the demands of liberty," and called on Americans to "have faith in our democratic system and our Constitution, and in our ability to protect at the same time both the freedom and security of all Americans."
|
