Martelen 15

De mensenrechten organisatie Human Rights Watch beschuldigt de Bush regering van martelen: 'WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A human rights group said on Wednesday that torture and other abuses committed by the United States in its war on terrorism have damaged American credibility and hurt the global human rights cause. In a survey of world conditions, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said Washington should appoint a special prosecutor and Congress should set up an independent panel to investigate U.S. abuses. The annual report covered rights developments in more than 70 countries. "The U.S. government's use and defense of torture and inhumane treatment played the largest role in undermining Washington's ability to promote human rights," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. President George W. Bush's administration has come under heavy criticism from rights groups at home and abroad, and from many foreign governments, over how it has handled the interrogation and detention of suspects in the war on terrorism Washington launched after the September 11 attacks…. The 532-page report said efforts by U.S. officials in 2005 to defend inhumane interrogation methods or seek exemptions from planned anti-torture legislation showed the "U.S. government's embrace of torture and inhumane treatment began at the top." "Fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause," Roth said in an introductory essay. "But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive." Human Rights Watch said the United States faced accusations of hypocrisy as it tackled 2005 troubles such as the massacre of hundreds of demonstrators in Uzbekistan, ethnic cleansing in Darfur, Sudan and severe repression in countries such as Myanmar, North Korea, Turkmenistan, China and Zimbabwe. "Even when the administration spoke out in defense of human rights or acted commendably, its initiatives made less headway as a result of the credibility gap," the report said. It said the credibility gap was reflected in muted U.S. criticism of abuses in Egypt, Russia and Saudi Arabia.' Lees verder:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-01-18T150237Z_01_N17343274_RTRUKOC_0_US-RIGHTS-REPORT.xml&archived=False Of ga naar site Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/13/global12428.htm