South Africa rebutted a US official report and defended its human-rights record, saying the country was doing better than the United States in "many respects."

Jody Kollapen, chairman for the Human Rights Commission, was quoted by a report of Business Day on Tuesday as saying that SouthAfrica was doing well in its efforts to advance human rights, but this did not mean there were no challenges still facing the country.

Kollapen was responding to a damning report on South Africa's human-rights record published by the US State Department on Monday.

He said: "We are doing pretty well, and the criticism is in broad terms about issues we have been dealing with as a country."

Kollapen said that there were other significant indicators by which to judge a country's human-rights record. "We are doing muchbetter than the United States in many respects. We conduct elections better than them and deal with terrorism better than them."

Terrorism suspects could not be detained indefinitely without trial in South Africa, for example, he said.

But the US embassy in Pretoria defended the report on Monday, saying it was accurate and that the South African and US governments could agree to disagree on its contents.

The Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2004, published by the US State Department's bureau of democracy, human rights and labor, says members of South Africa's "security forces committed serious human-rights abuses," that deaths in police custody were a "serious problem," that the judiciary was overburdened and that xenophobia continued to be an issue.

The report goes on to say: "Violence against women and childrenremained serious problems, and discrimination against women and persons with disabilities also remained problems." Child labor, including forced child labor, is a problem.

It also says: "Child prostitution and trafficking in persons were serious problems. Vigilante violence and mob justice continued throughout the country."

However, the report says that South Africa generally respects the human rights of its citizens, and that it has already taken action against some of those responsible for human-rights abuses.

Judy Moon, spokeswoman for the US embassy in South Africa, saidthe report was a snapshot of South Africa's situation at a particular time and did not mean the South African government was not working to improve the situation.

She said: "We believe it (the report) accurately reflects and represents the situation at the time it was compiled .. we understand the South African government may differ with it but sometimes we agree to disagree."

Moon said that the report would be submitted to the US Congress.

Source: Xinhua