Condemn Rights Abuses Worldwide

THE revelations of torture and the brutalising of Iraqi prisoners by United States forces deserve worldwide condemnation as do all acts of inhumane and degrading treatment of people – wherever they occur, and regardless of who is responsible.

The current debate on whether these were isolated incidents or policy should not be allowed to detract from the seriousness of the matter and the impact it has had, not only on the Arab communities, but on the world at large. According to the director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Switzerland, which had warned of US mistreatment of prisoners over the past year: “We are dealing here with a broad pattern, not individual acts.There was a pattern and a system.”This view has been echoed by another reputed human rights organisation, Amnesty International, which added: “Our extensive research in Iraq suggests that this is not an isolated incident…. (We have) received frequent reports of torture or other ill-treatment by coalition forces during the past year.Detainees have reported being routinely subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during arrest or detention… Virtually none of the allegations of torture or ill-treatment has been adequately investigated by the authorities.”Whatever the full truth of the matter, the photographs have shocked the world: in particular, the fact that the US, a country which is often perceived by itself and many in the rest of the world at times, as the guardian of global morals, stands accused of the kind of atrocities they are usually quick to identify in others as a raison d’etre for interference in domestic affairs.We must reiterate that such rights abuses should be condemned wherever they occur; we should not seek refuse in the selective morality that many countries, including our own, seem to employ when pointing accusatory fingers at those who violate them.There should be no taking of sides when human rights are in jeopardy.Even with the socalled ‘war on terror’ that the US decided to embark upon, there can be no justification for these kinds of acts, nor for the beheading of a US civilian in Iraq, brutal images of which have also sent shockwaves round the world.The reasons for the invasion of Iraq, as we have consistently maintained since the start of the war, were in any case spurious.If the cause was the draconian rule of Saddam Hussein (rather than the patently fake goal of the removal of weapons of mass destruction), then justifiably the world could have banded together through the United Nations, and used other ways and means to end injustices against the Iraqi people committed by a tyrannical ruler.But now, following the revelations of ill-treatment, the American ’cause’ in Iraq is more tenuous than ever.The world is undoubtedly worse off since the start of the ‘war on terror’ and the US has to shoulder a great deal of the blame for this.The annual human rights reporting by the US State Department will not be taken seriously by countries which themselves systematically abuse human rights, primarily because the US can no longer claim the moral high ground.We call upon our Government, and indeed governments the world over, to abandon selective morality and join hands to condemn rights abuses wherever they occur.BEST WISHES TO OUR HEAD OF STATETHE NAMIBIAN would like to join all other wellwishers in congratulating President Sam Nujoma on his 75th birthday.Indeed a milestone in a life of absolute dedication to the cause of Namibia, both pre and post independence.According to the director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Switzerland, which had warned of US mistreatment of prisoners over the past year: “We are dealing here with a broad pattern, not individual acts.There was a pattern and a system.”This view has been echoed by another reputed human rights organisation, Amnesty International, which added: “Our extensive research in Iraq suggests that this is not an isolated incident…. (We have) received frequent reports of torture or other ill-treatment by coalition forces during the past year.Detainees have reported being routinely subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during arrest or detention… Virtually none of the allegations of torture or ill-treatment has been adequately investigated by the authorities.”Whatever the full truth of the matter, the photographs have shocked the world: in particular, the fact that the US, a country which is often perceived by itself and many in the rest of the world at times, as the guardian of global morals, stands accused of the kind of atrocities they are usually quick to identify in others as a raison d’etre for interference in domestic affairs.We must reiterate that such rights abuses should be condemned wherever they occur; we should not seek refuse in the selective morality that many countries, including our own, seem to employ when pointing accusatory fingers at those who violate them.There should be no taking of sides when human rights are in jeopardy.Even with the socalled ‘war on terror’ that the US decided to embark upon, there can be no justification for these kinds of acts, nor for the beheading of a US civilian in Iraq, brutal images of which have also sent shockwaves round the world.The reasons for the invasion of Iraq, as we have consistently maintained since the start of the war, were in any case spurious.If the cause was the draconian rule of Saddam Hussein (rather than the patently fake goal of the removal of weapons of mass destruction), then justifiably the world could have banded together through the United Nations, and used other ways and means to end injustices against the Iraqi people committed by a tyrannical ruler.But now, following the revelations of ill-treatment, the American ’cause’ in Iraq is more tenuous than ever.The world is undoubtedly worse off since the start of the ‘war on terror’ and the US has to shoulder a great deal of the blame for this.The annual human rights reporting by the US State Department will not be taken seriously by countries which themselves systematically abuse human rights, primarily because the US can no longer claim the moral high ground.We call upon our Government, and indeed governments the world over, to abandon selective morality and join hands to condemn rights abuses wherever they occur.BEST WISHES TO OUR HEAD OF STATETHE NAMIBIAN would like to join all other wellwishers in congratulating President Sam Nujoma on his 75th birthday.Indeed a milestone in a life of absolute dedication to the cause of Namibia, both pre and post independence.