Thats between you and HG but if US resorts to terrorism, then how would they be any differnet from the Talibans? Similarly if u put down HG but resort to the same tactics then u are no differnet.
AS far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, I dont know anything about them but human rights violations are common in third world countries and punishment, even for minor infractions, pretty bizzare specially in Muslim countries. The US does support many of these countries including Saudi Arabia. As a matter of fact the record of US support for regimes unpopular with the people is pretty bismal icnl. but nnot limited to Shah of Iran, Osama Bin Laden, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan etc.
And since you posted human rights violations reported by Amnesty International in SA, here's one by AI about Pakistan presently being supported by the US...
29 June 2001
AI Index ASA 33/016/2001 - News Service Nr. 111
Pakistan: Harassment and police brutality against Afghan refugees
Following the death on Wednesday of an Afghan refugee who was thrown out of a moving car by Pakistani police, Amnesty International is calling on the Pakistani government to take decisive action on the continued persecution of Afghan refugees.
Afghan refugee Salahuddin Samadi had been living in Pakistan since 1996. Two police constables stopped him, his brother and two female relatives in Islamabad on 15 June and ordered them into taxis to go to Margala police station for questioning. The police allegedly demanded $150 from the brothers in return for their release. The men could not produce the money and were severely beaten. Salahuddin was reportedly beaten on the head with a bottle and thrown out of the moving car. The other three were released after the women had reportedly given $8 to the police.
Salahuddin Samadi was admitted to hospital and remained in a coma until he died on 27 June. He was one of hundreds, possibly thousands of Afghans subjected to harassment or police brutality in recent months.
"Despite repeated warnings -- including a letter by Amnesty International sent to the Chief Executive, General Pervez Musharraf, raising concern about the deteriorating situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan -- the Government of Pakistan has failed to ensure their safety and security," Amnesty International said.
In recent months, thousands of Afghan male refugees in Pakistan have become the subject of arbitrary arrest, intimidation, beatings and deportations by the Pakistani police. According to reports, police stop Afghans in the streets demanding bribes. Those who can pay are released, while others are taken to police stations and either released when their families pay a bribe or are beaten or deported.
Afghan families have been living in constant fear that their male members will be picked up by the police. Many reportedly stay indoors to avoid being arrested at random.
Provincial government authorities in the North West Frontier Province have repeatedly been quoted in the Pakistani press saying that Afghan refugees are no longer welcome in Pakistan and should go home. The police appear to have been given a free hand in deciding who should be arrested or deported. Arrests are made without a warrant, reportedly under the guise of Pakistan's Foreigners Act. Those who are detained cannot seek judicial redress against arbitrary detention because complaints have to be made to the police exposing them to further risk of harassment
Amnesty International is urging the government of Pakistan to institute an independent, impartial and competent inquiry to investigate the death of Salahuddin Samadi and the reported ill-treatment of his brother and two relatives who were with him at the time, and to bring to justice those responsible.
Amnesty International is also urging the Government of Pakistan to take decisive action to protect Afghan refugees who have become the targets of systematic harassment and police brutality in recent months.
Amnesty International continues to be concerned about the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and other countries in the region. In November 2000 the organization urged the Governments of Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan to open their borders to Afghan refugees and to fulfil their international obligation to provide safety to these refugees.
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and another....
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Pakistan
Honour Killing of Girls and Women
Introduction
"The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions."
- Hina Jilani, lawyer and human rights activist
Women in Pakistan live in fear. They face death by shooting, burning or killing with axes if they are deemed to have brought shame on the family. They are killed for supposed 'illicit' relationships, for marrying men of their choice, for divorcing abusive husbands. They are even murdered by their kin if they are raped as they are thereby deemed to have brought shame on their family. The truth of the suspicion does not matter -- merely the allegation is enough to bring dishonour on the family and therefore justifies the slaying.
The lives of millions of women in Pakistan are circumscribed by traditions which enforce extreme seclusion and submission to men. Male relatives virtually own them and punish contraventions of their proprietary control with violence. For the most part, women bear traditional male control over every aspect of their bodies, speech and behaviour with stoicism, as part of their fate, but exposure to media, the work of women's groups and a greater degree of mobility have seen the beginnings of women's rights awareness seep into the secluded world of women. But if women begin to assert their rights, however tentatively, the response is harsh and immediate: the curve of honour killings has risen parallel to the rise in awareness of rights.
Every year hundreds of women are known to die as a result of honour killings. Many more cases go unreported and almost all go unpunished. The isolation and fear of women living under such threats are compounded by state indifference to and complicity in women's oppression. Police almost invariably take the man's side in honour killings or domestic murders, and rarely prosecute the killers. Even when the men are convicted, the judiciary ensures that they usually receive a light sentence, reinforcing the view that men can kill their female relatives with virtual impunity. Specific laws hamper redress as they discriminate against women.
The isolation of women is completed by the almost total absence of anywhere to hide. There are few women's shelters, and any woman attempting to travel on her own is a target for abuse by police, strangers or male relatives hunting for her. For some women suicide appears the only means of escape.
Abuses by private actors such as honour killings are crimes under the country's criminal laws. However, systematic failure by the state to prevent and to investigate them and to punish perpetrators leads to international responsibility of the state. The Government of Pakistan has taken no measures to end honour killings and to hold perpetrators to account. It has failed to train police and judges to be gender neutral and to amend discriminatory laws. It has ignored Article 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which it ratified in 1996, which obliges states to "modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women" to eliminate prejudice and discriminatory traditions.
Some apologists claim that traditional practices as genuine manifestations of a community's culture may not be subjected to scrutiny from the perspective of rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Against this, the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action stated: "All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated" and asserted the duty of states "to promote all human rights and fundamental freedoms". The United Nations General Assembly in 1993 adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women which urges states not to "invoke custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligation" to eliminate discriminatory treatment of women.
While recognizing the importance of cultural diversity, Amnesty International stands resolutely in defence of the universality of human rights, particularly the most fundamental rights to life and freedom from torture and ill-treatment. The role of the state is to ensure the full protection of these rights, where necessary mediating 'tradition' through education and the law.
This report is the fourth in a series issued by Amnesty International on the rights of women in Pakistan; it is the first to look at abuses of women's rights by private actors.
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and thousands more........
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