Governments ‘abusing rights in war on terror’

GOVERNMENTS including Britain and the US are using the war on terror as an excuse to trample human rights, Amnesty International claimed yesterday.

The organisation's annual report said despite huge sums being spent to fight terrorism since September 11, people all over the world were feeling "more insecure than since the end of the Cold War".

Secretary general Irene Khan said: "In the name of security, politics and profit, human rights were trampled the world over by governments, armed groups and corporate activity.

"What would have been unacceptable on September 10, 2001, is now becoming almost the norm.

"What would have been an outrage in Western countries during the Cold War torture, detention without trial, truncated justice is readily accepted in some countries today for some people.

"Governments spend billions to beef up security to fight the war against terror but people, whether rich or poor in the global north or south, feel more insecure today than ever since the end of the Cold War."

The group said the detention by the US of 600 foreign nationals at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba was a "human rights scandal" and called on America to release or charge those imprisoned.

Britain was criticised by the human rights group for Home Secretary David Blunkett's Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, which has allowed 11 foreign nationals to be interned without charge in "inhuman or degrading conditions" in high security prisons during 2002.

Since then two more have been detained under the powers.

Ms Khan added: "Human rights are being pushed backstage in the name of security."

But security remains an "illusion" for most people, she said.

"The war on Iraq dominated the international agenda for the past year, but away from the eyes of the world a myriad of forgotten conflicts have taken a heavy toll on human rights and human lives in places as diverse as the Ivory Coast, Colombia, Burundi, Chechnya and Nepal.

"Iraq and Israel and the Occupied Territories are in the news, Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not, despite the threat of genocide.

"Amnesty International has exposed through the past year the hypocrisy, selectivity and double standards of governments, and the situation where the US and Britain attack Iraq supposedly because of weapons of mass destruction but continue to sell deadly weapons to known abusers of human rights."

She added: "The great supporters of human rights during the Cold War now quite readily either roll them back in their own countries or encourage others to do so and turn a blind eye," she said.

"We would not have seen that happening in the '80s under a Western government."