Does the US value Human Rights?
The world needs to know:
*Whether the US remains true to its
commitments to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
*Whether the soldiers who urinated on dead
bodies are a reflection of US policy on human rights?
Ranjit J Perera
‘Stalking from home to home, a United States Army sergeant
methodically killed at least 16 civilians, nine of them children, in a
rural stretch of Southern Afghanistan early on Sunday, igniting fears of
a new wave of anti-American hostility, Afghan and American officials
said,‘ the New York Times reported Sunday.
|
A mourner cries over the bodies of
Afghan civilians, allegedly shot by a rogue US soldier, seen
loaded into the back of a truck in Alkozai village of
Panjwayi district, Kandahar province on March 11, 2012. An
AFP reporter counted 16 bodies -- including women and
children. AFP |
|
An injured
Iraqi girl. Picture courtesy: Google |
|
The bodies of an elderly Afghan man
and a child are pictured in Alkozai village of Panjwayi
district, Kandahar province on March 11, 2012. An AFP
reporter counted 16 bodies -- including women and children
-- in three Afghan houses after a rogue US soldier walked
out of his base and began shooting civilians early Sunday.
AFP |
In one of the most gruesome human rights abuses in recent times, a US
soldier is reported to have walked over a mile (1.6 km) from his base in
the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province trying door after door before
breaking into three houses and killing 16 sleeping civilians, nine of
whom were children. Reports quote villagers as saying that he had
collected 11 of the bodies and set fire to them.
Sadly, this is only the latest in a string of violations of
international humanitarian law by US forces stretching back several
years. Earlier this month, five American servicemen and an Afghan
translator were reported to have burned copies of the Quran which were
among religious materials seized from a detainee facility at Bagram
Airfield last week, prompting a wave of outrage.
Abu Ghraib prison from where many abuses were reported was one of the
greatest embarrassments for the US government. Among the allegations of
abuses was the sexual harassment of prisoners and the frightening of
prisoners with dogs and even having them bite some prisoners.
Many other instances of appalling abuses are believed to have been
suppressed and kept secret even from the Congress. However, the most
infamous and controversial is perhaps the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
A senior US government official who investigated practices at the camp
admitted that a detainee had been tortured.
In July 2010 the Washington Times reported that, ‘Like its 2004 Hamdi
v. Rumsfeld decision, the Supreme Court’s Hamdan ruling affirms that the
United States is engaged in a legally cognizable armed conflict to which
the laws of war apply. It may hold captured al Qaeda and Taliban
operatives throughout that conflict, without granting them a criminal
trial, and is also entitled to try them in the military justice system -
including by military commission.’
The ruling did not deter US forces from killing an unarmed Osama Bin
Laden following an unauthorised foray into Abbottabad in Pakistan
earning the outrage of the Pakistani government and others who value
international humanitarian law. International law expert Kai Ambos
writing in Der Spiegel says, “A targeted killing of a terrorist does
not, contrary to what US President Barack Obama has suggested, do a
service to justice; rather, it runs contrary to it.
A state governed by the rule of law, treats even its enemies
humanely.” The operation which also killed bin Laden’s son also injured
or killed his youngest wife who was trying to shield him from the US
attack force. The entire operation violating international humanitarian
law was watched by President Obama and his senior advisers ‘in real
time’.
The US however, maintains high moral ground at all times. The US
State Department on its website states: Promoting freedom and democracy
and protecting human rights around the world are central to US Foreign
policy.
The values captured in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
in other global and regional commitments are consistent with the values
upon which the United States was founded centuries ago. On the same
page, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is quoted saying, “In
democracies, respecting rights isn’t a choice leaders make day-by-day,
it is the reason they govern.”
The US has increasingly come in for severe criticism for violating
its international obligations and continued human rights abuses. Last
year, China said, “The United States is beset by violence, racism and
torture and has no authority to condemn other governments’ human rights
problems.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry statement followed US criticism of
China’s human rights record. A Reuters report quoted a report published
by China’s official news agency Xinhua saying, “Stop the domineering
behaviour of exploiting human rights to interfere in the internal
affairs of other countries.”
|
Activists of Pakistan Muthidda Shehri
Mahaz burn the US flag during a protest in Multan on March
14, 2012, against US drone attacks. A US drone strike in
Pakistans lawless tribal belt on March 13 killed eight
fighters supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan but not
hostile to
Pakistani authorities, local officials said. |
|
Torturing
prisoners in Guantanamo. Picture courtesy: Google |
The long drawn out row between China and the United States on each
other’s’ human rights record intensified in 1998 when China first
published what has since become an annual publication titled, Human
Rights Record of the United States. The UN Human Rights Council’s 19th
Session in Geneva heard pious pronouncements from Under Secretary of
State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights of the United
States of America Ms. Maria Otero. “When the United States joined the UN
Human Rights Council two years ago, we set forth four values that would
guide our work in this body: universality, dialogue, principle, and
truth. We knew then, as we know now, that the honest dialogue and
dedicated effort of this Council will help all of our nations on the
path to international peace and security.”
Making a plea for a second term on the Council she said, “In the two
years since, we have stayed true to those values. But our global
challenges remain-among them, threats to freedoms of assembly,
association, expression and religion and to vulnerable populations. As
we seek a second term on the Council, the United States stands ready to
build on the Council’s successes to pursue solutions to these pressing
challenges.”
How true has the US been to those values? Not very I’m afraid. Human
Rights abuses by the US have been consistent with the regular use of
force against various countries. The arming of rebels and the aggression
committed by NATO forces covered by a see-thru UN resolution in Libya
ensured the unseating of the oil-rich country’s long-time ruler Muammar
Gadhafi.
Videos showing him captured alive and dead thereafter with wounds on
his body were compounded by the sadistic display of the body in a
vegetable display refrigerator without giving a speedy burial according
to Islamic custom. The US is in the forefront of criticism of the Assad
regime in Syria. The lack of any criticism of the rebel forces shows up
US foreign policy in Syria for what it really is.
The bottom line is that rebels sponsored by various governments in
the name of democracy remain free to violate human rights with impunity.
Earlier this year, IHR Law reported how family members of Iraqi
civilians killed by Blackwater had agreed to a settlement. Seventeen
Iraqis died in the incident when Blackwater security guards escorting an
American envoy in Baghdad fired on civilians on a busy street. Iraqi
victims later spoke about the horrors of that day.
The US killed American citizen Anwar Awlaki last year and followed up
by killing his son too. Americans have been angered by the lack of due
process and the killing of a child but mostly by Attorney General
Holder’s defence of the actions. The United States also has been using
its seat in the UNHRC to pressure smaller countries like Sri Lanka to
achieve their agenda.
|
Scores of civilians killed in Iraq.
Picture courtesy: Google |
The current pressure on this small Indian Ocean Island to implement
an internal government report is such an instance. The Lessons Learnt
and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is an indigenous mechanism
initiated by the government of Sri Lanka as part of its overall
reconciliation and normalisation effort following the end of the
conflict in 2009.
It was not initiated following international pressure. To call upon
the Sri Lankan government to implement same is much like asking the USA
to investigate and prosecute the soldier who killed 16 civilians in
Afghanistan. The United States would need moral authority to police the
world. They would need also to ensure that justice is not only done but
must also seem to be done. It is a pity that the United States uses
double standards with regard to human rights.
The world needs to know whether the US remains true to its
commitments to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or whether the
soldiers who urinated on dead bodies are a reflection of US policy on
human rights.
www.hytimes.com, www.cnn.com, www.newyorker.com,
www.washingtonpost.com, www.spiegel.de.com, www.bbc.co.uk,
www.reuters.com, www.xinhuanet.com, www.salon.com, www.dailymail.com.uk
|