Washington slams Thai record

[MaiLuk]

I think China did exactly that. Came up with an annual report about the USA's human rights abuses.

[MaiLuk]

 

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UPDATED: 10:57, March 10, 2006

Human rights: China delivers riposte to US

 

 

 

Beijing yesterday rejected Washington's criticism of China's human rights record, and unveiled its own account of rights abuses in the United States.

 

The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2005, issued by the State Council Information Office, accuses the US Government of hypocrisy and double standards on human rights.

 

It is the seventh year in succession that China has released its own annual report outlining US human rights abuses.

 

 

http://english.people.com.cn/200603/10/eng20060310_249509.html

[MaiLuk]

The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2005

 

The Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China

 

March 9, 2006

 

 

On March 8, the U.S. Department of State, posing once again as "the world's judge of human rights," released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2005. As in previous years, the State Department pointed the finger at human rights situations in more than 190 countries and regions, including China, but kept silent on the serious violations of human rights in the United States. To help people realize the true features of this self-styled "guardian of human rights," it is necessary to probe into the human rights abuses in the United States in 2005.

 

I. On Life and Security of Person

 

For a long time, the life and personal security of people of the United States have not been under efficient protection. American society is characterized with rampant violent crimes. Across the country each year, 50,000 suicides and homicides are committed (Va.Violent Deaths Are Mostly Suicides, The Washington Post, October12, 2005).

 

The U.S. Justice Department reported on Sept. 25, 2005 that there were 5,182,670 violent crimes in the United States in 2004. There were 21.4 victims for every 1,000 people aged 12 and older, which amounts to about one violent crime victim for every 47 U.S. citizens (Crime Rate Remains at 2003 Level, Study Says, The Washington Post, September 26, 2005).

 

According to figures released by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), murder increased by 2.1 percent across the United States during the first six months of 2005, compared with the same period of 2004. A total of 4,080 murders were reported in cities with more than 10,000 people, while homicides were up 13 percent in cities with a population of 10,000 or less (Murder Rate in Small Cities Jumps 13%, USA Today, Dec. 20, 2005).

 

The Washington D.C., with a population of less than 600,000, had 194 slayings in 2005 (D. C. Area Slaying Climbed In 2005, The Washington Post, Jan. 2, 2006).

 

In Chicago, the number of various crimes exceeded 125,000 from January to September of 2005, including 352 murders, 11,564 robberies, 8,903 assaults and 534 arsons (http://egov.cityofchicago.org).

 

From January to mid-November of 2005, 334 persons were murdered in Philadelphia, exceeding the total number of murderees in the city in 2004 ( Philly: 334 Killings So Far This Year, Philadelphia Daily News, Nov. 14,2005).

 

During the first half of 2005, 198 murders were reported in Los Angeles, 11 percent more than the same period of 2004 (Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2005).

 

Seventy-two people were murdered in Compton, California, with a population of only 96,000 ( Compton Killings Highest in Years, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 2, 2006). Camden in New Jersey has become the most dangerous city in the United States, with its homicide rate more than ten times the national average and robbery rate, more than seven times the national average (Camden, N.J., Ranked Most Dangerous U.S. City, The Washington Post, Nov. 22, 2005).

 

The United States has the largest number of privately owned guns in the world. According to statistics released in June 2005 by the Brady Campaign, an organization aiming to prevent gun violence, there were approximately 192 million privately owned firearms in the United States (Firearm Facts, Issued by The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, June 2005, in: http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/factsheets/).

 

A survey conducted by the Washington Post and the American Broadcasting Company showed that about ten percent of the surveyed were once shot, and 14 percent threatened by guns.

 

According to figures released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Justice Department in 2005, in the year 2004 the United States recorded 339,200 firearm-related crimes, including 11,300 murders, 162,900 robberies, and 165,000 assaults (Statistics Crimes Committed with Firearms, Issued by U.S. Bureau of Justice, in: http://www.ojb.usdoj.gov/bjs).

 

The Washington Post reported on Dec. 25, 2005 that every year nearly 12,000 Americans use guns to kill people. In the reports of crimes received by American police in 2004, 70 percent of the murders, 41 percent of the robberies and 19 percent of assaults on persons were committed with firearms.

 

 

 

This is a long report. Here is the link:

http://english.people.com.cn/200603/09/eng20060309_249259.html

[Damen]

"during the first six months of 2005, compared with the same period of 2004. A total of 4,080 murders were reported"

 

With numbers like those, you would think the war is taking place on American soil rather than in Iraq ::

[Damen]

"The United States has the largest number of privately owned guns in the world. According to statistics released in June 2005 by the Brady Campaign, an organization aiming to prevent gun violence, there were approximately 192 million privately owned firearms in the United States"

 

And with numbers like these, it sounds like we will be more than ready if war ever does break out on American soil.

[Old Hippie]

Guns aside, more people get beaten to deathj here than get shot to death, we are a very violent society, and need to correct ourselves before we go off tell other countries what's wrong with them...seems sort of arrogant for us to even make suck a report...

[BadaBing]

I wonder if when our gvmt goes off on Cuba , do they blame them for this as part of the report ?

 

Bada Bing

[Old Hippie]

Well, yes! Gitmo is in Cuba, and that commie Castro runs Cuba, so it is his fault, not ours...jeez, withy logic like that, I could be Thai...

[Flashermac]

Speaking of which ...

 

Anti-Castro Sign at Ballgame Causes Stir

Mar 10, 2006

 

By ANDREW SELSKY

Associated Press Writer

 

 

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - While Cuba played the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic, a spectator in the stands raised a sign saying: "Down with Fidel," sparking an international incident that escalated Friday with the velocity of a major league fastball.

 

The image of the man holding the sign behind home plate was beamed live Thursday night to millions of TV viewers - including those in Cuba. The top Cuban official at the game at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan rushed to confront the man.

 

Puerto Rican police quickly intervened and took the Cuban official - Angel Iglesias, vice president of Cuba's National Institute of Sports - to a nearby police station where they lectured him about free speech.

 

"We explained to him that here the constitutional right to free expression exists and that it is not a crime," police Col. Adalberto Mercado was quoted as saying in El Nuevo Dia, a San Juan daily.

 

The brouhaha gathered steam Friday when Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, Granma, called the sign-waving "a cowardly incident." Cuba's Revolutionary Sports Movement exhorted Cubans to demonstrate in Havana late Friday, saying U.S. and Puerto Rican authorities were involved in "the cynical counterrevolutionary provocations."

 

The Cuban Baseball Federation, in a statement released Friday in San Juan, said authorities failed to provide security and preserve the spirit of the sporting event, and "evidently had no intention of doing so."

 

The Cubans considered withdrawing from the tournament because of "the lack of security and respect" but decided to remain after Puerto Rican promoters made guarantees, the federation said in a statement without elaborating.

 

An anti-Castro Web site, therealcuba.com, identified the protester only as Enrique, and carried his own account of the incident.

 

Enrique said that during the warmup before the game, he flashed another sign denouncing Castro - this one saying "Baseball players yes, Tyrants no" - to the Cuban leader's son, Tony Castro. Tony Castro is the Cuban team doctor.

 

"He looked down and kept walking and I shouted 'Eso es para tu papa' (That is for your dad). I know he heard that," Enrique said, according to the account in the Web site.

 

Mercado said the spectator, and a second one who also waved signs, had tickets for the section behind home plate, but had moved out of their seats closer to the view of the TV cameras. Cuban state TV was showing the ESPN signal and the anti-Castro signs were briefly visible on television in Cuba.

 

Police later told the pair to return to their seats, Mercado said, adding that Iglesias was never under arrest.

 

"The Cubans were upset with the incident that happened last night, and they want to make sure it doesn't happen again," said John Blundell, spokesman of Major League Baseball, which helped establish the tournament. "We are doing everything that we can to ensure the safety of fans and the delegations."

 

Cuba downed the Netherlands 11-2. Cuba has also beat Panama in the first round of competition.

[Flashermac]

THE NATION

12 March 2006

 

 

EDITORIAL: US report offers food for thought

 

Truly democratic governments that respect human rights have no cause to take offence at the annual assessment.

 

 

 

Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was apparently too busy fending off his opponents, who are mounting street protests to seek his ouster, to have noticed the latest US State Department annual human rights report, whose assessment of Thailand never failed to annoy him in the past. But that doesn't make the report's section on the human rights situation in this country any less thought-provoking or interesting.

 

This time, the Foreign Ministry took on the supposedly patriotic role of defending the country's honour. A ministry spokesman on Friday mounted an impassioned defence of Thailand's human rights record, calling the US assessment improper, unbalanced and incomplete. He said Thailand did not appreciate a friendly country like the US keeping dossiers on how other countries dealt with human rights-related issues in the first place.

 

The spokesman objected particularly to the imposition of US norms and standards in passing judgement on other countries' human rights situations. Being diplomatic, he stopped short of telling the US government to look at its own human rights record, made notorious by its soldiers' ill treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

 

But the message to the US was clear: Thailand considers the release of the annual human rights report by the State Department a "not constructive" exercise that creates bitter feeling.

 

The US has listed a wide range of human rights abuses in Thailand in its latest report, including police brutality, arbitrary arrests, intimidation of the press, violence against female trafficking victims, discrimination against minorities including hill tribes, ill treatment of foreign migrant workers, and, believe it or not, poor prison conditions.

 

The report cites complaints by legal organisations about police torture of suspects and the use of beatings to obtain confessions.

 

The Foreign Ministry's reaction to the report was understandable given the fact that Thaksin is an elected prime minister who is extremely sensitive to any kind of criticism. It must be noted that before Thaksin came to power five years ago, Thailand had never officially complained about such reports ever since they were first published in 1979.

 

Previous governments dealt with the reports in a mature way. They treated the reports as a benchmark viewed from a Western perspective. In fact the report, which covers more than 130 countries, is drafted mostly by US diplomats based in various capitals in which the US has diplomatic missions.

 

It must be said that in general the report, required by the US Congress, is accurate and comprehensive and makes for interesting reading to anyone concerned about the human rights situation in countries around the world. Indeed, these reports are even considered indispensable as sources of reliable information, particularly in undemocratic countries ruled by repressive regimes that do not allow a free press.

 

Unsurprisingly, the more repressive a government is the more aggressive its response to the US report becomes.

 

Any open-minded, sensible person would regard the US report on human rights as providing some interesting points to ponder, knowing full well that it reflects only the US State Department's perception and assessment.

 

As such, it is impossible for the report to be absolutely balanced, complete or even completely accurate. The way the information is compiled, selected, interpreted and analysed can be improved. But writing the report to suit every government's sensitivities or unrealistic expectations of flattery is never the intention of the report's authors.

 

If the Thai government or Thai readers of the report are open-minded enough, then the report can be useful because it tells us how others view our society so that we can try to improve ourselves if we want to.

 

Inaccuracies in the report should be pointed out and clarified as the Foreign Ministry is rightly doing, but to say that nothing good could possibly come from the report is definitely untrue. After all, human rights is no longer an alien Western concept but a universally accepted standard with certain variances and different points of emphasis.