U.S.REPORT ON SRI LANKA

WHAT MORAL RIGHT U.S.HAS TO PREACH HUMAN RIGHTS TO OTHERS?

(Part II)

A.A.M.NIZAM, MATARA.

Political opportunists and NGO vultures hailing from the offsprings of Don Juan and Dona Katherina are exerting all efforts to halt the military operations against the Northern terrorists and accord them a respite to regain their military prowess. These progenies finding difficulty to lure the general masses for their treacherous schemes are laying “pavada” (laying welcome carpets) for alien elements endeavouring to impose neo-colonial agendas in developing countries such as Sri Lanka . Inclusion of hearsay accounts in the 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the United States on 11.03.2007 was a calculated effort to discredit Sri Lanka and thus bully it to be soft and sympathetic on the Northern terrorists. The United States has no moral right to dictate terms to Sri Lanka on the subject of human rights.

United States is the worst human rights violator of the world. The despicable culture of intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign nations, notwithstanding the sovereignty of states and acceptance of the Westphalia doctrine by the international community, was introduced by the United States . Unleashing a propaganda barrage againt Communism, and in the petext of protecting countries from getting subdued by Communist influense, and oppressive regimes, the United States made several covert and overt interventions in the post World War II period such as;

• the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba to overthrow Cuban President Dr. Fidel Castro;
• intrusion into Indo- China of Vietnam , Cambodia and Laos . Carpet bombing of these countries for several years destroying all their natural resources;
• Overthrow the democratically elected Sandinista Government of Daniel Ortega by supporting, financing and arming the Amerian puppt group known as Contras of Nicaragua;
• entering Granada in the West Indies and overthrowing the left oriented Government of Maurice Bishop conceiving it as a communist threat on America 's own backyard;
• installation of the dictatorship of tyrant Pinochet in Chile by forcibly overthrowing the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende;
• installing the tyranny of Shah of Iran by overthrowing the government of Musadeg as a pumishment for nationalisation of Iran 's oil resources;
• installing Suharto as Indonesian President overthrowing the popular govermemt of Sukarno and killing more than half a million persons alleging supporting communism;
• providing sophisticated weapons to the then “nice guy”Saddam Hussein and make him fight a destructive proxy war against Iran for over a period of eight years;

The United States speak much on the virtues of democracy and the need to strengthen people's power and the need to protect the right of the people to elect their own representatives. The people of Algeria and Palestine exercised these rights and elected their representatives in free and fair elections. As those elected so were not lackeys of the United States , the elected representatives in Algeria were not allowed to form their own government and instead a puppet administration of Generals was installed. The curse being unleashed on Paestinians for the crime of electing the representatives of Hamas instead of electing their puppets belonging to Abbas group needs no elaboration.

The United States and its allies project Usama Bin Laden as the most horrendous person in the world. However, they conceal the fact that it was the United States who created a monster out of the Saudi national Osama Bin Laden who arrived in Peshawar somewhere in 1979 to fight the Russian forces that occupied Afghaistan. The Americans helped him to establish the Maktab al-Khidmat (MAK), a support organisation for Arab volunteers, which became the foundation for the present day Al Qaeda. According to media reports the CIA channelled between 500 milion to 3 billion U.S.Dolars a year in cash and arms for Afghan resistance and assistance for Osama were delivered in the form of arms. In 1986 CIA helped Osama Bin Laden to build an underground camp at Khost, where he trained recruits from across the world.

The United States also has no right to speak about torture and murder of civilians. Inhuman torture of persons in the name of “rendition” in clandestine “Torture Cells” in Poland and several other Eurpopean locations, Abu Ghurair prison camp in Iraq, Guantanao Bay in Cuba speak volumes on the so-called protection of human rights by the United States.

The Americans who invaded Iraq on 12 th March, 2003 on the false pretext of Weapons of Mass Destruction being possessed by Saddam Hussain is responsibe for the death of 655,000 Iraqis upto July 2006, within a period of nearly 40 months. The average daily death toll in Iraq is estimated to be 450. The death toll upto now is unimaginable and exceeds the aggregate population of many small nations.

The United States while trying to bully other nations on human rights accord no protection to its own citizen against gross human rights violations in its own soil. According to a FBI report on crime statistics released in September 2007, 1.41 million violent crimes were reported nationwide in 2006, an increase of 1.9 percent over 2005. Of the violent crimes, the estimated number of murders and no negligent manslaughters increased 1.8 percent, and that of robberies increased 7.2 percent. According to the FBI Report, throughout 2006, U.S. residents age 12 or above experienced an estimated 25 million crimes of violence and theft.

Reuters News Agency reported on 19.12.2007 that about 30,000 people die from gun wounds every year in the United States . An earlier report on 05.12.07 claimed that death caused by gun wounds have increased by 13% sine 2002. There is no protection for students in the Universities as killing of University students have become rampant.

Vioation of civil rights by U.S. law enforcement authorities has increased by 25 perceent from 2001 to 2007 as per statistics from the U.S.Department of Justice.
The United States is reported to be the world''s largest prison and has the highest inmates/population ratio in the world. The number of inmates in U.S. prisons have increased by 500 percent over the last 30 years.

Workers'' right to unionize is restricted in the United States . Only 12 percent of workers hold membership in Unions due to various forms of restrictions. It was 20 percent and 1983..

The United States speak profusely about democracy and elections. But as per the election culture prevalent there only super millionaires could think of ever entering politics. Election is only a day dream for an ordinary person. At least 10 of the 20-strong major party candidates who are seeking the U.S. presidency in general elections in 2008 are millionaires.The French news agency AFP reported on January 15, 2007 that the 2008 presidential election will be the most expensive race in history. The cost of the last presidential campaign in 2004 amounted to 693 million U.S. dollars. This year's election is estimated to cost 3 billion U.S. dollars.

Reports claim that the deserved economic, social and cultural rights of U.S. citizens have not been properly protected. Poor population in the United States is constantly increasing. The official poverty rate in 2006 was 12.3 percent as per U.S. Census Bureau statistics published in August 2007.There were 36.5 million people, or 7.7 million families living in poverty in 2006. In another word, almost one out of eight U.S. citizens lives in poverty.

In the meantime,the wealth of the richest group in the United States has rapidly expanded, widening the earning gap between the rich and poor. Reuters News Agency claimed that the earnings of the highest one percent of the population accounted for 21.2 percent of U.S. total national income in 2005, compared with 19 percent in 2004. The earnings of the lowest 50 percent of the population accounted for 12.8 percent of the total national income in 2005, down from 13.4 percent in 2004.

The report also claimed that hungry and homeless people have increased significantly in U.S. cities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report released on November 14, 2007 that at least 35.5 million people in the United States, including 12.63 million children, went hungry in 2006, an increase of 390,000 from 2005.

About 11 million people lived in "very low food security".

Reuters News Agency also claimed that racial discrimination is a deep-rooted social illness in the United States . Black people and other minor ethnic groups live in the bottom of the U.S. society. According to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau in August 2007, average income of black households was 31,969 U.S. dollars in 2006, or 61 percent of that for non-Hispanic white households. Average income for Hispanic households stood at 37,781 U.S. dollars, 72 percent of that for non-Hispanic white households. According to Washington Observer Weekly, the rates of blacks and Hispanics living in poverty and without health insurance are much higher than non-Hispanic whites,.

Ethnic minorities have been subject to racial discrimination in employment and workplace. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in November 2007, the unemployment rate for Black Americans was 8.4 percent, twice that of non-Hispanic Whites (4.2 percent). The unemployment rate for Hispanics was 5.7 percent. The jobless rates among blacks and Hispanics were much higher than that for non-Hispanic Whites.

Women account for 51 percent of the U.S. population, but there are only 86 women serving in the 110th U.S. Congress. Women hold 16, or 16.0 percent of the 100 seats in the Senate and 70, or 16.1percent of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives.
Discrimination against women in U.S. job market and workplaces is rampant. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 23,247 charges on sex-based discrimination in 2006, accounting for 30.7 percent of the total discrimination charges.

Millions of underage girls become sex slaves in the United States . Statistics from the Department of Justice show some 100,000 to three million U.S. children under the age of 18 are involved in prostitution. A FBI report says as high as 40 percent of forced prostitutes are minors.

The United States rather than trying to bully a small nation like Sri Lanka struggling to eliminate a terrorist menace grown to a grotesque form due to Western assistance, and posing a grave threat to the whole world, should take measures to correct its own mistakes the world over and accord basic human rights to its own population without discriminating them on race, wealth and other standards.

WHAT MORAL RIGHT U.S.HAS TO PREACH HUMAN RIGHTS TO OTHERS? (Part I)
A.A.M.NIZAM, MATARA.-Full Story- (LankaWeb - 16/03/08)