· Countries only act when it is politically convenient
Peter Walker
Friday February 1, 2008
The Guardian
The US, UK and other western nations are ignoring flawed or rigged elections in some countries for the sake of political convenience, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today in its annual round-up of rights abuses around the world.
While publicly espousing the cause of democracy, Washington, London and others were happy to deal closely with "despots masquerading as democrats", such as Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, the group said.
HRW singled out the UK government as a concern for its policy of deporting terrorism suspects to countries with repressive regimes if assurances are given the detainees will not be tortured or otherwise mistreated. This "handy device" had now been borrowed by the US to justify renditions, while Russia and other nations were also happily trying it out, the group said.
The report detailed abuses in more than 75 countries and territories, covering perennial rights pariahs such as North Korea, Burma and China as well as the US and EU. It criticised Israel for blockading Gaza in response to rocket attacks, describing this as "collective punishment of Gaza's civilian population in violation of international humanitarian law".
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