Human rights and hypocrisy

Writes an eminent journalist, Irfan Husain:

SHORTLY after 9/11, I was flooded with e-mails from Americans who suddenly wanted to learn more about foreign perceptions of their country.The question “Why do they hate us?” kept cropping up in letter after letter. I explained that over the years, successive US administrations had acted in ways that would have shocked the average American had he known what was being done in his name. But Americans tend to be largely insular, and ignore international events.Now, in these lawless post-9/11 days, the Bush administration can literally get away with murder. The recent revelations from Bagram in Afghanistan are part of the overall picture of a latter-day Gulag stretching from Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib to Afghanistan.Whenever the Americans have conducted an internal inquiry into prisoner abuse, we have been told those responsible were untrained in interrogation techniques. How much training does it need for decent people to know they are inflicting agony on their prisoners?Irene Khan, director of Amnesty International the organization, has lambasted the American military for running what she calls the ‘gulag for our times’.

Of course American abuse of prisoners must be condemned by all of us. But at the same time, we need to take a hard look at what’s happening in our prisons. In its annual report for 2004, this is what Amnesty International says about Pakistan’s track record: “Torture and ill-treatment by the police and prison officers remained routine and the perpetrators were rarely held to account. Several people died in custody.” The report does not mention the role of our intelligence agencies in torturing suspects. However, from time to time, their hand is exposed. A few months ago, a British TV channel ran an investigative documentary in which a mysterious American executive jet was shown taking off from American and European airports and flying prisoners to remote destinations in the Middle East. The programme interviewed a Canadian Muslim who had been flown from the United States to his native Syria and tortured for months. This is not to suggest that the Muslim world has a monopoly on torture. Far from it. But human rights abuses flourish most brutally in the absence of democracy, and unfortunately, the record of Muslim countries in political freedom is pretty dismal.

So why this outrage over the excesses committed by Americans in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and Bagram? Because the Americans have set themselves higher standards, and their entire legal system prohibits the abuse of prisoners.

America has often been criticized for double standards, but never has the chasm between words and actions been as wide. Now when the US government chides some dictator for mistreating his citizens, he will turn around and quote Amnesty on American treatment of prisoners.In Abu Ghraib, those responsible for the abuse of prisoners defended themselves by saying they were “only having fun”, and claimed they were acting under orders. Clearly, if America wishes to win back its moral authority, it will have to look into the actions of senior civilian and military officers in the chain of command. But the fact that Rumsfeld has been retained as defence secretary in Bush’s second administration is an indication that it is business as usual in Washington. (For complete story please click on the title above)