U.S. hypocrisy undermining war on terror: report
Associated Press with CP
Tuesday, January 14 – Online Edition, Posted at 11:12 AM EST
Washington — Many countries resent or are reluctant to join the U.S. war on terrorism partly because of Washington's tendency to ignore human rights in its
conduct of the war, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
In several key countries involved in the campaign against terrorism, such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, even rhetorical U.S. support for human rights has been rare, the New York-based group said in its annual survey.
When the United States does try to promote human rights, its authority has been undermined by its refusal to be bound by the standards it preaches to others, the report said.
"Washington's tendency to ignore human rights in fighting terrorism is not only disturbing in its own right," the report said. "It is dangerously counterproductive. The smouldering resentment it breeds risks generating terrorist recruits, puts off potential anti- terrorism allies and weakens efforts to curb terrorist atrocities."
For example, the United States is generating popular resentment in Pakistan by uncritically backing President Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, Human Rights Watch said.
"To fight terrorism, you need the support of people in countries where the terrorists live," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of New York-based group. "Cozying up to oppressive governments is hardly a way to build those alliances."
In China, the Bush administration has played down the repression of Muslims in the Xinjiang province, which the Chinese government justifies as an anti-terrorism measure.
The 558-page Human Rights Watch World Report 2003 covers human rights in 58 countries in 2002. It identifies positive trends such as the formal end to wars in Angola and Sierra Leone and peace talks in Sri Lanka. But negative developments include the continued killings of civilians in wars from Colombia to Chechnya and in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The report said that in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the United States clearly needed to take extra security measures.
"But the U.S. government must also pay attention to the pathology of terrorism, the set of beliefs that leads some people to join in attacking civilians," it said. "A strong human rights culture is an antidote to this pathology but in too many places Washington sees human rights mainly as an obstacle to its goals."
"The United States is far from the world's worst human rights abuser," Mr. Roth notes. "But Washington has so much power that when it flouts human rights standards, it damages the human rights cause worldwide."
Saudi Arabia is described as having a "highly repressive government," but one that is rarely challenged by Washington on human rights issues because it is such an important regional player.
The United States has also been reluctant to expand the international peacekeeping forces that could help bring stability to Afghanistan, relying instead on abusive warlords who are inhibiting the human rights progress made possible by the fall of the Taliban.
Meanwhile, critics say Washington has ignored human rights standards in its own treatment of terrorist suspects.
Human Rights Watch said the Bush administration seemed to recognize the connections between repression and terrorism in its National Security Strategy, saying steps had been taken to promote human rights in some countries directly involved in the struggle against terrorism, such as Egypt and Uzbekistan. But the U.S.-led war on terror has also provided an excuse for other western countries to slacken their support for human rights.
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