Amnesty slams unprincipled US global security agenda

The US government's global security agenda is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle, according to Amnesty International's annual report.

The Amnesty International Annual Report 2004 also found the UK complicit in human rights abuses carried out in Iraq. The 'war on terror', Amnesty said, and the war in Iraq had not only led to a new wave of human rights abuses but also diverted attention from old ones which continue hidden from the eyes of the world.

Reports of torture and ill-treatment underline the vulnerability of hundreds of prisoners, not only in Iraq but also at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, Afghanistan and elsewhere, incarcerated by the United States and its allies without charge, trial, access to lawyers or protection of the Geneva Conventions, the human rights organisation stated.

The 339-page report documents human rights issues of concern to Amnesty International during 2003 in 155 countries. Besides Iraq, the report also documents festering conflicts in places like Chechnya, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Nepal which have become a "breeding ground for some of the worst atrocities".

In a damning assessment, the Secretary General Irene Khan said: “The global security agenda promoted by the US Administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle. Violating rights at home, turning a blind eye to abuses abroad and using pre-emptive military force where and when it chooses has damaged justice and freedom, and made the world a more dangerous place.

She added: “By failing to protect the rights of those who may be guilty, governments endanger the rights of those who are innocent, and put us all at risk.”

Violence by armed groups and increasing violations by governments have combined to produce the most sustained attack on human rights and international humanitarian law in 50 years. This is leading to a world of growing mistrust, fear and division, Amnesty said in its annual assessment of human rights worldwide.

Amnesty International strongly condemned armed groups responsible for atrocities such as the March 11 bombing in Madrid and the bomb attack on the United Nations building in Iraq on 19 August 2003, which killed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello.

The "callous, cruel and criminal attacks" by armed groups such as al-Qa’ida sometimes amounted to "war crimes and crimes against humanity".

It reports found that: extrajudicial executions were carried out in 47 countries; people were "disappeared" by state agents in 28 countries; victims of torture and ill-treatment by security forces, police and other state authorities were reported in 132 countries; and people were executed in 28 countries.

(gmcg)