| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-Republicans |
| User: |
"GW Chimpzilla" |
| Date: |
19 May 2004 06:41:20 PM |
| Object: |
Jimmy Carter Slams AWOL Bush's Torture Chambers and Rape Rooms |
The Seeds Of a Rights Scandal In Iraq
By Jimmy Carter
14 May 2004
(This op-ed was originally published in the May 14 issue of The Washington
Post.)
To ensure that additional human rights embarrassments will not befall the United
States, we must examine well-known, high-level and broad-based U.S. policies
that have lowered our nation's commitment to basic human rights.
Immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, many traumatized and fearful U.S. citizens
accepted Washington's new approach with confidence that our leaders would
continue to honor international agreements and human rights standards.
But in many nations, defenders of human rights were the first to feel the
consequences of these changes, and international humanitarian organizations
began expressing deep concern to each other and to high-level U.S. military and
government officials about the adverse impact of the new American policies, and
to promulgate reports of actual abuses.
Some of their recommendations were quite specific, calling for vigilant
independent monitoring of U.S. detention facilities and strict enforcement of
Geneva Convention guidelines. Others were more general, describing the impact
of these policies on defenders of freedom and human rights around the world.
These expressions of concern have been mostly ignored until recently, when
photographs of prisoner abuse let Americans finally see some of the
consequences of our government's policies in graphic, human terms.
Some prominent concerns were:
* Extended incarceration of arbitrarily detained men of Middle Eastern origin
living in the United States -- deprived of access to lawyers or to their
families, and never charged with a crime.
* Civilians and soldiers arbitrarily detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without
access to legal counsel or being charged with any crime. The secretary of
defense announced that they could be held indefinitely even if tried and found
to be innocent.
* The secretary of defense's declaration, expressing official policy, that
Geneva Convention restraints would not apply to interrogation of prisoners
suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.
* Persistent complaints from the International Committee of the Red Cross about
prisoner abuse in several U.S. prisons in foreign countries.
* Reports by respected news media outlets that some accused terrorists were
being sent to Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia or other countries where torture was
thought to be acceptable as a means of extracting information.
These American decisions had an immediate global impact. In response to urgent
requests from human rights defenders from many countries, the late Sergio
Vieira de Mello, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and I agreed that it
would be helpful to hear directly from a representative group. After the high
commissioner's tragic death in Iraq last August, U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan appointed Bertrand Ramcharan to serve as my co-chair, and in November
2003 the Carter Center brought together leaders of human rights and democracy
movements from 41 nations.
We learned from these nonviolent activists that U.S. policies are giving license
to abusive governments and even established democracies to stamp out legitimate
dissent and reverse decades of progress toward freedom, with many leaders
retreating from previous human rights commitments. Lawyers, professors, doctors
and journalists told of being labeled as terrorists, often for merely
criticizing a government policy or carrying out their daily work. Equally
disturbing are reports that in some countries the U.S. government has pushed
regressive counterterrorism laws, based on the USA Patriot Act, that undermine
democratic principles and the rule of law. Some American policies are being
challenged by Congress and the federal courts, but the reversal of such
troubling policies is unlikely in countries where legislative and judicial
checks and balances are not well developed.
We decided to share the disturbing findings with the media and public officials.
In addition to a one-hour roundtable discussion on CNN, participants from Human
Rights Watch, Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human
Rights), the Carter Center, and defenders from Egypt, Kenya and Liberia went to
Washington and met with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz; the
undersecretary of state for global affairs, Paula Dobriansky; and legislative
leaders. The group also participated in a forum at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies and met with editors of the New York Times and The Post.
In each case, the adverse impact of new U.S. policies on the protection of
freedom and human rights was described with specific proof and human
experiences. These officials listened attentively and promised to consider ways
to alleviate the problem. As subsequent events have revealed, there were no
significant reforms at the highest levels of our government.
In many countries, the leaders of human rights and democracy movements represent
our best hope for a safer and more just world in which fewer people will
succumb to extremism fueled by hatred and fear. These human rights defenders on
the front lines of freedom are our real allies, and the United States must make
long-term commitments to support -- not undermine -- them.
In the interests of security and freedom, basic reforms are needed in the United
States and elsewhere, including restrictions on governments' excessive
surveillance powers; reassertion of the public's right to information; judicial
and legislative review of detentions and other executive functions; and strict
compliance with international standards of law and justice.
The United States must regain its status as the champion of freedom and human
rights.
http://www.cartercenter.org/viewdoc.asp?docID=1683&submenu=news
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