US State Department accuses Russia of human rights violations

The annual report on human rights from the US State Department accuses the Russian Federation of human rights violations, for illegal killings in Chechnya.

The report declares the operation in Afghanistan as a complete success, “a triumph for human rights in 1991”, as it relates the defeat of international terrorism to the defence of human rights and freedom.

The document, based on US diplomatic reports and declarations by human rights watch groups, accuses the Russian Federation, China and Saudi Arabia of having systematically abused human rights in 2001.

Russia is accused of having tortured Chechen terrorists and of “killing them outside the normal legally established limits”. China is accused of having used the war against terrorism as a pretext to suppress religious freedom among the population in Xinjiang province, mainly populated by Moslems.

Israel is cited as having committed human rights violations, but this is justified in the report by the fact that its actions were provoked by the Moslem extremist groups, Hammas and Hezbollah. Human rights in China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and the Sudan are said to be “particularly worrying”, while in Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko’s prorogation of his term in office is classified as undemocratic.

Other countries in which human rights violations are quoted are Columbia, Zimbabwe and Cuba.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru