<strong>Written By:</strong> a free mans life
<strong>Date:</strong> 2008-01-31 15:19:14
<a href="/article/123018196-hrw-western-democracies-undermine-civil-right">Article Link</a>

Still, Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch's executive director, wrote in a segment of the report called "Despots Masquerading as Democrats": "It is a sign of hope that even dictators have come to believe that the route to legitimacy runs by way of democratic credentials."

Among countries named as major violators of democratic credentials in 2007 were Kenya, Pakistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Nigeria, Russia and Thailand. The report covered the year through November. In December, Thailand's military government allowed elections and was voted out of power by a large majority to end 16 months of rule by the junta.

The annual report is the 18th compiled by Human Rights Watch. It summarizes human rights shortcomings in more than 75 countries.

Among other countries listed as abusers were Chad, Colombia, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. It spoke of abuses by the United States, France and Britain, along with Pakistan, in the name of a "war on terror."
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<a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/31/america/rights.php">http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/31/america/rights.php</a>

   

The policy of the Canadian government is to support our allies. That means that as long as a government is considered an "ally" all other considerations become basically irrelevant. This is how they could support Isreal in the invasion of Lebanon and how they can turn a blind eye to the corruption of the government of Afghanistan.

It is this kind of policy that makes hypocrits out of those politians who use undefined terms like democracy or human rights to describe their "mission" while at the same time provide military and other support for administrations that oppose those values.

The more the smokescreen around the Afghanistan mission clears the more evident it becomes that our troops are in that country to use force to destroy opposition to the current US friendly government at all costs. The Chief of Defence Staff indicated that the military does not care about the kind of government they are fighting to impose on the people of Afghanistan. This means that not only do I not support the mission but I can no longer support the troops.