UK and US accused of hypocrisy over despots

· Human rights group says west ignores flawed polls
· Countries only act when it is politically convenient

Peter Walker
Friday February 1, 2008
The Guardian

The US, UK and other western nations are ignoring flawed or rigged
elections in some countries for the sake of political convenience,
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today in its annual round-up of rights
abuses around the world.
While publicly espousing the cause of democracy, Washington, London and
others were happy to deal closely with "despots masquerading as
democrats", such as Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, Russia’s
Vladimir Putin and Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, the group said.

HRW singled out the UK government as a concern for its policy of
deporting terrorism suspects to countries with repressive regimes if
assurances are given the detainees will not be tortured or otherwise
mistreated. This "handy device" had now been borrowed by the US to
justify renditions, while Russia and other nations were also happily
trying it out, the group said.

The report detailed abuses in more than 75 countries and territories,
covering perennial rights pariahs such as North Korea, Burma and China
as well as the US and EU. It criticised Israel for blockading Gaza in
response to rocket attacks, describing this as "collective punishment
of Gaza’s civilian population in violation of international
humanitarian law".

But HRW’s primary target this year was what it views as the hypocrisy
of western nations condemning democratic violations only when expedient.

"Rarely has democracy been so acclaimed yet so breached, so promoted
yet so disrespected, so important yet so disappointing," HRW’s
executive director, Kenneth Roth, said in an introduction to the
569-page document. This "pseudo democracy" had seen leaders in
countries such as Egypt, Nigeria and Ethiopia recognised abroad for
their popular mandates despite elections plagued by fraud, intimidation
or other flaws.

"It seems Washington and European governments will accept even the most
dubious election so long as the ‘victor’ is a strategic or commercial
ally," Roth said, calling the promotion of democracy "a softer and
fuzzier alternative to defending human rights".

President Bush had even praised Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999
coup, for placing Pakistan "on the road to democracy", Roth noted.

Roth said the current violence in Kenya, prompted by the seemingly
rigged election on December 27 which returned President Mwai Kibaki to
power, could be traced back to overseas reluctance to challenge a
similarly flawed poll in Nigeria 10 months earlier. "Nigeria’s leader
came to power in a violent and fraudulent vote, yet he’s been accepted
on the international stage," he said. He said it led Kenya to believe
fraud would be tolerated in the presidential election.

The report castigated the UK for its policy of allowing terrorism
suspects to be transferred to the care of brutal regimes on receipt of
what the group termed "empty promises of humane treatment".

At a glance

Among the countries highlighted by Human Rights Watch for particularly
poor human rights records were:

· North Korea Human rights were summed up simply as "abysmal"

· Burma A "deplorable" record with a "denial of basic freedoms"

· Zimbabwe "Torture in police custody is common"

· China The government "continues to deny or restrict its citizens’
fundamental rights"

· Afghanistan More than six years after the US invasion, life for the
average inhabitant "remains short, miserable, and brutal"