US omits human rights violations in rights report: paper

The US State Department, issuing its annual human rights report, praised the US government's efforts to rebuild economy in Iraq, but did not mention human rights violations by US forces or their allies, the Los Angeles Times noted on Tuesday.

In reporting the human rights report, the paper pointed out that the document included a two-and-a-half-page summary of US efforts to rebuild Iraq, "praising the US government for efforts to stimulate the economy and implant democracy," but it "mentions no human rights violations by US forces or their allies."

"It's awkward.... (US) credibility has taken a huge blow," the Times quoted Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, as saying. He said the predicament was "a perfect example of how it's not enough to have moral clarity if you don't have moral authority."

US officials conceded that US military's prisoner abuse scandalhas raised questions of authority about whether the US can sit in judgment on other countries' moral records, the newspaper said.

The paper, the largest daily in western US, said the annual human rights report usually receives little note, but this year, it drew wide attention when the State Department postponed its scheduled release May 5 as the abuse scandal was growing.

"At the time, the State Department said 'technical reasons' delayed the report. But (US Assistant Secretary of State Overseeing Human Rights) Lorne Craner said Monday that officials were concerned that the Abu Ghraib scandal was a cloud that was obscuring what we were trying to do," the Times reported.

Craner also maintained that US efforts to promote rights have not been hurt by the US shutdown of an anti-American news outlet in Iraq, or by US pressure against Al Jazeera, the Arab-language satellite TV channel.

"At the same time, Craner said, some of the governments named as rights violators have objected to criticism, citing the prison scandal," the Times reported.

Source: Xinhua