Amnesty: Iraq shrouds human rights abuses elsewhere

Reuters ^ | 3/29/03

[areafiftyone]

LONDON, March 30 (Reuters) - Rights group Amnesty International warned on Sunday that war in Iraq was giving cover to other countries to trample on human rights.

Amnesty said that since the U.S.-British onslaught was launched against Iraq 10 days ago, there had been a human rights backlash in 14 countries.

It listed Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Jordan, Norway, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Turkey, the United States and Yemen as transgressors.

"Governments appear to be using the world's focus on the theatre of war to violate human rights shielded from public scrutiny," the group said in a report.

Since March 20, millions of people had taken to the streets in protest and faced excessive force from police in seven countries, it said. Deaths, beatings and torture had been reported.

In Sudan, three students were reported to have been killed during protests. In Greece police beat Iraqi immigrants, and Turkish riot police used batons to disperse a crowd outside a mosque, Amnesty said.

Belgium had placed more than 450 anti-war demonstrators under preventive arrest, and in Britain police were stopping and searching people "without reasonable suspicion".

The group also highlighted what it said was restriction of asylum rights by a host of countries.

Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Britain have frozen decisions on Iraqi asylum claims, and in the United States tough new security measures -- named "Operation Liberty Shield" -- allows for the detention of asylum seekers from Iraq and at least 33 other countries, it said.

"From Egypt to the USA, from Belgium to Sudan, governments must respect fundamental rights and refrain from using the war in Iraq as a pretext for curtailing or abusing these rights," Amnesty said in a statement.

[areafiftyone]

Sure go ahead and blame the U.S. for everything that goes wrong. They are so full of SH#$%T! Amnesty International is irrelevant just like the U.N.

[Danette]

This is the biggest load of crap I've ever read....

[lelio]

Will Amnesty International or the UN ever look to Zimbabwe to comment (as they never *do* anything) on the attrocities going on there?

[merrin]

It's sad. I remember when Amnesty International could at least tell the difference between good and evil.

[areafiftyone]

Oh didn't you know - Zimbabwe is all the United States's fault </sarcasm>

[aimhigh]

From the book, Islam Unveiled, by Robert Spencer:

"The very concept of human rights is a Judeo-Christian invention, and is inadmissible in Islam"; spoken by Sa'id Raja'i-Khorassani.

[Porterville]

I knew before I even open the thread that Amnesty would be rippin' on the US. Burn Amnesty along with the UN..bastards

[snooker]

It is truely amazing that someone would actually write this.

[ET(end tyranny)]

No kidding. They completely ignore the travesties the barbarians in Iraq commit.

[Bob J]

I guess those funsters in Iran shooting people in the back while trying to escape to freedom must have somehow slipped from there view.

Oh well, better to concentrate on the horror of people enroute to the local bistro or rave getting their ID's checked for an excessive period of time. Inhumane I say.

[lelio]

From Egypt to the USA, from Belgium to Sudan, governments must respect fundamental rights
Odd they don't mention Iraq in there. Guess they get a free pass. I suppose Muslim-on-Muslim violence isn't news. Hrmm, where I have seen that viewpoint before?

[angkor]

AI ought to do a report on the barbarism of the Islamists in Chechnya, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen, etc etc etc.

That they do not exposes AI as a cowardly and dishonest organization.

[ET(end tyranny)]

That they do not exposes AI as a cowardly and dishonest organization.

Agree. They are losing what credibility they may have had.

It would be laughable, if it weren't so horrific.

[Mister Baredog]

They should team up with PETA, they are just about as relevant.

[areafiftyone]

At least PETA keeps us amused in the process.

[perfect stranger]

They forgot Cuba.