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11 November 2004
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Thursday
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27 Ramazan 1425
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US criticized in British govt's HR report
LONDON, Nov 10: The United States faced rare criticism over human rights from Britain on Wednesday, with an official government report taking Washington to task over concerns about Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay jail.
The differences were limited, and all had been raised previously with US officials, but it remains nonetheless embarrassing for Washington to be lined up alongside nations such as North Korea and Zimbabwe in the report.
Formally unveiling the report in London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw stressed that countries had to respond to the greatest human rights threat of modern times, terrorism.
"States cannot protect human rights without fighting the threat from terrorism," he said in a speech, while stressing that nations "must never stoop to the level of the terrorist".
The 310-page Human Rights Annual Report brought up the cases of Britons held at the US detention centre for terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"The UK position has been that British detainees should either be tried fairly in accordance with international standards or returned to the UK," it said.
Four Britons remain among hundreds of non-US nationals held without trial at the base for periods of up to three years, and could face military tribunals for alleged involvement in global terrorism.
London had "concluded that the proposed military commissions would not provide sufficient guarantees of a fair trial according to international standards", the report added.
The report also quoted Straw himself also condemning the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the US-run Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad as "utterly shameful, disgusting and disgraceful", noting that no similar allegations of systematic mistreatment had been levelled against British forces.
Straw, while conceding that there were unresolved rights issues with Washington, stressed however that there was a clear difference between nations where abuses were routine and others which were "self-correcting".
Additionally, the bulk of the report's criticisms were aimed at 20 specific countries or territories, not including the United States, where human rights are considered by Britain to be at particular risk.
These included Sudan's Darfur region, North Korea, Zimbabwe, China and Uzbekistan. -AFP
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