Human rights violations diminish US' moral authority

The London based human rights watchdog in its 308-page report castigated the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and compared the situation with that of Gulag prison of the Soviet Union where political prisoners were detained and tortured during Joseph Stalin's rule.

Amnesty International accused governments around the world of abandoning human rights protection. It said Sudan did not protect its own people from one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis and that Haiti rather protected human rights abusers. One of the biggest disappointments in the human rights area was the United States, after evidence came to light that US administration had sanctioned interrogation techniques that violated the UN convention against torture. Guantanamo Bay has become the Gulag of our time: This comment was made when Irene Zubaida Khan, the first woman, the first Asian and the first Muslim, Secretary General (seventh) of Amnesty International, presented its annual report at Foreign Press Association in London on May 25.

Bangladesh native Irene Khan said that the United States government and its allies, who lead the war on terror continue to persist with politically convenient but ineffective strategies, which undermine human rights. She said that the government of Sudan betrayed the people of Darfur by unleashing a campaign of killing, rape, displacement and destruction. But UN also betrayed them by doing too little too late. The people of Darfur were held hostage to China's oil interests, Russia's arms trade and the United States' aversion of the International Criminal Court, Irene Khan added. Having obtained Law degree from Manchester University and Harvard Law School Irene worked with United Nations High Commissioner for refugees from 1980 in different capacities at headquarters and in the fields.

Meanwhile, William F Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty international USA defended its methods and said, in part Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush administration ignored or dismissed Amnesty International's reports on the abuses of detainees for years, and senior officials continue to ignore the very real plight of men detained without charge or trial.In an interview with WETA organisation, Schulz said that Bush administration, particularly Donald Rumsfeld, quoted Amnesty International report about violations of human rights by Saddam Hussein several times during the war in Iraq, but now started criticising Amnesty International when it pointed out the violations of human rights brazenly by themselves. Schulz issued a statement calling "Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top administration officials architects of torture and suggested that other countries could file war-crimes charges against the top officials and arrest them."

It is typical of Bush administration to implicate immediately the person with vilification campaign who criticised Bush administration like one they did recently against Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations. Similarly, Bush administration try to implicate William Schulz as saying that he contributed to Senator Kerry's election campaign during presidential election in 2004. Schulz told the Washington Times (June 02) that "we strive to do everything humanly possible to see that the personal political perspectives of our leadership have no bearing whatsoever upon the nature of our findings and the conduct of our work."

When stories of ill-treatment, inhuman torture in Abu Ghraib prison came to light in the news media, the Amnesty International in its report focused on the violations of human rights and said," terrorism and attempts by governments to support it have combined to produce the most sustained attack on human rights and international humanitarian law in 50 years with the United States of America a principled culprit. " That time there was not much hue and cry from Bush administration, but this time, because of Amnesty's comparison of a US detention camp to a Gulag of the Soviet Union, it has caused furor.

Amnesty International is not the lone organisation to criticise US administration's sustained violations of Human Rights. International Red Cross (ICRC) also holds Bush administration responsible for violation of human rights. ICRC said, sarcastically, that "the United States has made the whole world see what the hell a democratic, law ruled nation is." The ICRC was of the opinion that abuse of detained Iraqi in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad was not a single case. It was systematic behaviour. Reported desecration of holy Quran at Guantanamo Bay by US military guards also caused widespread protests against US government in many parts of Muslim countries.

It is interesting to note that Information office of China's State Council, instead of replying to the allegations of human rights violations in China made by the State Department of the United States, brought out human rights records of the United States of America in 2004. In its preamble, which is first such report, it is said that "in 2004 the atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the dark side of human rights performance of the United States. The scandal shocked the humanity and was condemned by the international community. It is quite ironic that on February 28, 2005, the State Department of the United States once again posed the world human rights police and released its country reports on human rights practice for 2004."

No less a person than Nobel laureate former President Jimmy Carter of the United States criticised the US policies as a kind of retrogression, which has damaged the principle of democracy -- the rule of law -- and lacked respect for fundamental human rights.

Not only international human rights organisations like Amnesty or ICRC, but also Americans themselves in an appeal in the New York Times on January 23, San Francisco Chronicle February 3 and Los Angeles Times February 15, 2005 said, "In our name, the Bush administration holds in contempt international law and world opinion. It carries out torture and detentions without trial around the world and proposes new assaults on our rights of privacy, speech and assembly at home." The appeal was signed by fifteen thousand people.

The United States also is voted out of the human rights commission of the United Nations, which has caused concern to Bush administration. They have now clamouring to bring about reforms in all branches of the United Nations. Echoing the opinion of Amnesty International, leading US Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat, on June 04 called upon the administration to shut down Guantanamo Bay prison camp immediately to protect America, which reflects the level of concern in the United States. The image of the United States in the comity of nations is at its lowest ebb, which is reflected in the comments of Secretary General of Amnesty International: "By lowering the human rights standards, the United States has weakened its own moral authority to speak out on human rights."

Mohammad Amjad Hossain, a former Bangladesh diplomat, now resides in Virginia, USA.