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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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 Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:20 pm Post subject: China issues human rights record of United States in 2007 |
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| Quote: | China issues human rights record of United States in 2007
"BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China issued on Thursday the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2007 in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007 issued by the U.S. Department of State on Tuesday.
Released by the Information Office of China's State Council, the Chinese report listed a multitude of cases to show the human rights situation in the United States and its violation of human rights in other countries.
The report says the United States reigns over other countries and make arrogant and malicious attacks on their human rights issues, but mentions nothing about its own human rights problems.
By publishing the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2007, the report says it aims to "help the people have a better understanding of the real situation in the United States and as a reminder for the United States to reflect upon its own issues".
The report reviewed the human rights record of the United States in 2007 from seven perspectives: on life and personal security, on human rights violations by law enforcement and judicial departments, on civil and political rights, on economic, social and cultural rights, on racial discrimination, on rights of women and children and on the United States' violation of human rights in other countries."
Some excerpts:-
"The report says the increase of violent crimes in the United States poses a serious threat to its people's lives, liberty and personal security.
According to a FBI report on crime statistics released in September 2007, 1.41 million violent crimes were reported nationwide in 2006, an increase of 1.9 percent over 2005.
Of the violent crimes, the estimated number of murders and nonnegligent manslaughters increased 1.8 percent, and that of robberies increased 7.2 percent
Throughout 2006, U.S. residents age 12 or above experienced an estimated 25 million crimes of violence and theft, according to the FBI report.
In the United States, about 30,000 people die from gun wounds every year, according to a Reuters story on December 19, 2007.
The USA Today reported on December 5, 2007 gun killings have climbed 13 percent overall since 2002.
On April 16, 2007, the Virginia Tech University witnessed the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history with 33 killed and more than 30 others injured, according to AFP.
Two separate gun killings in the Salt Lake City and Philadelphia claimed eight lives and injured several other people on February 12, 2007, according to the Associated Press.
The report points out that law enforcement and judicial departments in the United States have abused their power and seriously violated the freedom and rights of its citizens.
Cases in which U.S. law enforcement authorities allegedly violated victims' civil rights increased by 25 percent from fiscal year 2001 to 2007 over the previous seven years, according to statistics from U.S. Department of Justice.
However, the majority of law enforcement officers accused of brutality were not prosecuted in the end.
The United States of America is the world's largest prison and has the highest inmates/population ratio in the world. A December 5, 2007 report by EFE news agency quoted statistics of U.S. Department of Justice as saying that the number of inmates in U.S. prisons have increased by 500 percent over the last 30 years.
In the United States, money is "mother's milk" for politics while elections are "games" for the wealthy, highlighting the hypocrisy of the U.S. democracy, which has been fully borne out by the 2008 presidential election.
The "financial threshold" for participating in the U.S. presidential election is becoming higher and higher. At least 10 of the 20-strong major party candidates who are seeking the U.S. presidency in general elections in 2008 are millionaires, according to a report by Spanish news agency EFE on May 18, 2007.
The U.S. administration manipulated the press. On October 23, 2007, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staged a news conference on California wildfires.
A half-dozen questions were asked within 15 minutes at the event by FEMA staff members posing as reporters.
The news was aired by U.S-based television stations. After the Washington Post disclosed the farce, FEMA tried to defend itself for staging the fake briefing.
The invasion of Iraq by U.S. troops has produced the biggest human rights tragedy and the greatest humanitarian disaster in modern world. It was reported that since the invasion in 2003, 660,000 Iraqis have died, of which 99 percent were civilians. That translates into a daily toll of 450.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the number of civilian deaths in Iraq has exceeded one million. A report from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) revealed that about one million Iraqis were homeless, half of whom were children.
U.S. troops have killed many innocent civilians in the anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan. The Washington Post reported on May 3, 2007 that as many as 51 civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers in one week (Karzai Says Civilian Toll is No Longer Acceptable, The Washington Post, May 3, 2007).
An Afghan human rights group said in a report that U.S. marine unit fired indiscriminately at pedestrians, people in cars, buses and taxis along a 10-mile stretch of road in Nangahar province on March 4, 2007, killing 12 civilians, including one infant and three elders (New York Times, April 15, 2007).
U.S. human rights records can be best described as tattered and shocking. The facts enlisted above are only a tip of an iceberg, the report says."
full report can be read here
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/13/content_7778748.htm |
theres a good post over at the heathlander about the american state departments annual human rights report, with plenty of links to the report and other articles. its a great blog the heathlander  |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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the russians are at it as well 
| Quote: | Russia slams US report as biased
MOSCOW - Year after year, the U.S. issues a troubling assessment of human rights in Russia.
Year after year, Russia lashes back, accusing the U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights practices around the world of twisting reality and warning that Washington has no right to preach.
With relations at what could be a post-Cold War low, it is no different this time around.
In a sometimes bitter, sometimes sarcastic statement Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said the portrayal of Russia in the 2007 report was prejudiced, mistaken, poorly sourced and counterproductive.
The ministry said the report reflected the "double standards" of a country it claimed uses human rights as a "foreign policy tool" while balking at scrutiny of its own actions.
"How else can one explain that the United States — which has essentially legalized torture, applies capital punishment to minors, denies responsibility for war crimes and massive human rights violations in Iraq and Afghanistan, refuses to join a series of treaties in the sphere of human rights — distortedly comments on the situation in other countries?" it said.
"Meanwhile, the U.S. uses the struggle to spread democracy and the defense of human rights as a cover, with no regard to systemic problems within its own country," it said.
The U.S. report, released Tuesday, said that centralization of power in President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, corruption, selective law enforcement and onerous restrictions on aid groups and the media were among factors that "continued to erode the government's accountability to its citizens" in Russia. It also noted human rights abuses in war-scarred Chechnya.
The Foreign Ministry said "the State Department's latest opus" contained a "hackneyed collection of claims" about human rights in Russia.
"The document, unfortunately, abounds in groundless accusations, citations of unverified and deliberately biased sources, mistakes and juggling of facts," the statement said. It did not offer specifics.
It said that "many passages were copied from previous reports: One gets the impression that the State Department just selected material to fit conclusions formed in advance."
Russia took issue with the report's reference to problematic elections and to a leading international observer group's criticism of its December parliamentary elections. It accused the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's vote-monitoring body of "politicized approaches" and the U.S. of resisting reform.
Through eight years as president of an assertive country enjoying largely energy-fueled economic growth, Putin has made a point of shrugging off growing Western accusations of backtracking on democracy, and warned the U.S. against interfering in Russia's affairs.
The Foreign Ministry criticized what it called the "mentorish tone" of the U.S. State Department report.
"We are convinced that politicizing the rights-protection issue and distorting the human rights situation in various countries will lead not to the resolution of existing problems, but to the devaluation of the principles and goals of international cooperation in this area," it said. |
from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080312/ap_on_re_eu/russia_us_human_rights
interestingly the bbc covered the chinese one, but of course missed out all the key figures! ( can't have the bbc talking about the million dead iraqi's .... like pinter said, Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn’t know it. It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis ... ) |
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