Policy of abuse fuels terrorism
Excerpts from a press release from New York-based Human Right Watch dated 18 january 2006:
New evidence demonstrated in 2005 that torture and mistreatment have been a deliberate part of the Bush administration's counterterrorism strategy, undermining the global defense of human rights, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2006.
"Fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive." Roth said the illegal tactics were fueling terrorist recruitment, discouraging public assistance of counterterrorism efforts and creating a pool of unprosecutable detainees.
U.S. partners such as Britain and Canada compounded the lack of human rights leadership by trying to undermine critical international protections. Britain sought to send suspects to governments likely to torture them based on meaningless assurances of good treatment. Canada sought to dilute a new treaty outlawing enforced disappearances. The European Union continued to subordinate human rights in its relationships with others deemed useful in fighting terrorism, such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.
Many countries - Uzbekistan, Russia and China among them - used the "war on terrorism" to attack their political opponents, branding them as "Islamic terrorists."
So far HRW. The Bush "War on Terror" has indeed handed a powerful tool to dictators all over the world. I'm sorry to say that Sweden has nothing to be proud of in this context. Our "social democratic" government in December 2001 allowed masked CIA agents pick up two unwanted Egyptian refugees, drug them and tie them blindfolded on mattresses, to be flown to Egypt. According to Swedish reports, at least one of the refugees was tortured in Egyptian prison. In may 2005 United Nation's Committee against Torture established that Sweden had indeed violated the Convention against Torture.
Read CAT's verdict on the Swedish government here
Download the full Human Rights Watch World Report 2006 here (pdf 2,5 MB)
New evidence demonstrated in 2005 that torture and mistreatment have been a deliberate part of the Bush administration's counterterrorism strategy, undermining the global defense of human rights, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2006.
"Fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive." Roth said the illegal tactics were fueling terrorist recruitment, discouraging public assistance of counterterrorism efforts and creating a pool of unprosecutable detainees.
U.S. partners such as Britain and Canada compounded the lack of human rights leadership by trying to undermine critical international protections. Britain sought to send suspects to governments likely to torture them based on meaningless assurances of good treatment. Canada sought to dilute a new treaty outlawing enforced disappearances. The European Union continued to subordinate human rights in its relationships with others deemed useful in fighting terrorism, such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.
Many countries - Uzbekistan, Russia and China among them - used the "war on terrorism" to attack their political opponents, branding them as "Islamic terrorists."
So far HRW. The Bush "War on Terror" has indeed handed a powerful tool to dictators all over the world. I'm sorry to say that Sweden has nothing to be proud of in this context. Our "social democratic" government in December 2001 allowed masked CIA agents pick up two unwanted Egyptian refugees, drug them and tie them blindfolded on mattresses, to be flown to Egypt. According to Swedish reports, at least one of the refugees was tortured in Egyptian prison. In may 2005 United Nation's Committee against Torture established that Sweden had indeed violated the Convention against Torture.
Read CAT's verdict on the Swedish government here
Download the full Human Rights Watch World Report 2006 here (pdf 2,5 MB)
posted by Pelle at Friday, January 20, 2006
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