In a rare admission, the US said on Tuesday its own human rights record was in question in an annual report that criticized Iraq for its death squads with government links, kidnapping and torture.
"We do not issue these reports because we think ourselves perfect but rather because we know ourselves to be deeply imperfect," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as she presented the report, which assesses human rights in more than 190 countries but does not review the US record.
Iraq was among the most problematic nations listed in the report, which found respect for rights had also deteriorated in China, Russia, Venezuela and Egypt.
"On one side, predominantly Sunni Arab groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq, irreconcilable remnants of the Baathist regime, and insurgents waging guerrilla warfare violently opposed the government and targeted Shi'a communities," the report said.
"[On] the other, predominantly Shi'a militias with some ties to the Iraqi Security Forces [ISF], targeted Sunnis in large-scale death squad and kidnapping activities," it said.
Amnesty International's Zahir Janmohamed, advocacy director for the Middle East, said the report was more open than in the past but did not adequately outline the plight of Iraqi refugees.
"Under [former Iraqi president] Saddam Hussein, there were atrocious violations but you did not have 25 percent of the population fearing for their lives and leaving the country," he said.
"The situation now is so bad that people simply do not feel safe," he said.
The Bush administration has come under growing criticism for its own treatment of terror suspects held without trial at a US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, and in detention centers elsewhere.
"We recognize that we are writing this report at a time when our own record and actions we have taken to respond to the terrorist attacks against us, have been questioned," the report said. "We are also committed to ... improvement."
Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, described the report's conclusions on Iraq as "grimly honest" and welcomed the State Department's decision to acknowledge its own actions are under question.
"I think they realized their reports have become less credible over the years in many parts of the world because of these questions," he said.
China, Russia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Sudan, North Korea, Myanmar, Kazakhstan and Iran were among other nations listed as the most serious rights offenders in the report.
China's record on human rights, already "poor," deteriorated in certain areas, the report said, noting increased harassment and detention of journalists, writers, activists and defense lawyers.
There was also a warning that conditions in China's prisons were "harsh and degraded" and cited research that vital organs of executed prisoners were harvested before burial.
Myanmar's military government "extensively used executions, rape, torture, arbitrary detention, and forced relocation of entire villages, particularly of ethnic minorities, to maintain its grip on power," the report said.
BORAT MENTIONED
Meanwhile, fictional Kazakh TV reporter Borat made a cameo appearance as a victim of censorship in the report, which cited the Kazakhstan for increased restrictions on freedom of speech and other abuses.
The report cited Borat's loss of his Kazakh Web page www.borat.kz in late 2005 alongside court cases and limits on free speech faced by the few domestic media critical of President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
It also listed the murder last year of opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, his bodyguard and driver as "unlawful deprivation of life."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not