LONDON (Reuters) - Washington's global anti-terror policies are "bankrupt of vision" as human rights become sacrificed in the blind pursuit of security, a leading human rights group has charged.
Amnesty International also rapped partners across the world in the United States' self-declared "war on terror" for jailing suspects unfairly, stamping on legitimate political and religious dissent, and squeezing asylum-seekers.
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Specifically, Amnesty lashed Washington for unlawful killings of Iraqi civilians; questionable arrest and mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan; and opposition to a new global criminal court.
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http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=517664§ion=news-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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"Callous, cruel and criminal attacks by armed groups such as al-Qa'ida, pose a very real threat to the security of people everywhere. We condemn them in the strongest possible terms as serious crimes under international and domestic law, amounting at times to war crimes and crimes against humanity," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
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.
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The report details unlawful killings of civilians by Coalition troops and armed groups in Iraq. 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, or access to lawyers or protection of the Geneva Conventions.
"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."
The "war on terror" and the war in Iraq has encouraged a new wave of human rights abuse and diverted attention from old ones. Hidden from the eyes of the world, Report 2004 documents festering internal conflicts in places like Chechnya, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Nepal which have become a breeding ground of some of the worst atrocities. Violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories has deepened, while elsewhere many governments are openly pursuing repressive agendas.
"While governments have been obsessed with the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, they have allowed the real weapons of mass destruction-- injustice and impunity, poverty, discrimination and racism, the uncontrolled trade in small arms, violence against women and abuse of children -- to go unaddressed," said Irene Khan.
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http://news.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGPOL100162004 (AI Press Release with full report)
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