Tracking Number: 215807
Title: "US Strongly Backs Sending Rights Monitors to Iraq." The US strongly supports sending UN human rights monitors to Iraq and extending the mandate of the UN there, according
to US Ambassador J Kenneth Blackwell, because it is clear that the Saddam Hussein regime is systematically violating the human rights of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. (920221)
Translated Title: EU apoya firmemente envio de
obervadores derechos humanos a Irak. (920221)
Author: NEWMANN, ROBIN (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19920221
Text:
U.S. STRONGLY BACKS SENDING RIGHTS MONITORS TO IRAQ
(Blackwell, Abram, Schifter news conference) (680)
By Robin Newmann
USIA European Correspondent
Geneva -- With it clear that Saddam Hussein's regime is systematically
violating the human rights of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, the United
States "strongly supports" sending United Nations human rights monitors to
Iraq and extending the mandate of the U.N. special rapporteur there, says
Ambassador J.Kenneth Blackwell.
Speaking at a February 21 press conference the day after the U.N. Commission on Human Rights' (UNCHR) special rapporteur on Iraq presented a scathing report on the violations perpetrated by Saddam Hussein's regime, Blackwell said the United States thinks "that anything short of toughening the language and extending the mandate would be a travesty."
Blackwell, the U.S. representative to the 53-nation Commission on Human Rights -- the U.N.'s principal human rights watchdog, was joined in the press conference by Ambassador Morris B. Abram, permanent representative to the U.N. office in Geneva, and Richard Schifter, assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs.
The 86-page report read to the commission by rapporteur Max van der Stoel February 20 "made it very, very clear that the Iraqi regime continues to be a gross violator of human rights and those violations include arbitrary and summary executions, arbitrary detention of political or religious opponents, disappearances and torture," Blackwell said.
"In addition to that, we believe that by refusing to comply with U.N. Security Council Resolution 688, which requires the cessation of repression against civilians, Iraq has demonstrated its disregard for basic humanitarian values."
After uncovering "irrefutable evidence of torture...being practiced on a large scale," receiving data on the disappearance of "many tens of thousands of people," including 180,000 Kurds, and listening to eyewitness testimony about the systematic "oppression and persecution" of the Turkoman minority among others, van der Stoel concluded in his dramatic report that Iraq must be persuaded to accept the presence of U.N. human rights monitors. Those monitors would remain in Iraq until the human rights situation improves, van der Stoel said, describing the current situation as one of "exceptional gravity."
Abram meanwhile called on countries to rethink the way they elect countries to the UNCHR so as to avoid the current situation whereby gross human rights violators such as Iraq and Cuba sit in judgment on others.
"Membership on the commission is a badge of honor," Abram said. "Regions should not want to be represented by nations that do not respect human rights. It is worse than an anomaly; it is degrading that the commission members include perpetrators of some of the most serious, persistent and well-documented human rights violations -- some the object of commission action at this session."
He rejected the argument that by being members, violators of human rights improved their records.
"Experience shows that that's not a valid argument," he said, pointing out that Iraq and Cuba's membership on the commission "hasn't changed the climate in Cuba nor Iraq."
Schifter called for a re-analysis of the commission's work and its relevance to the world at large.
"Unfortunately, a substantial amount of work that is being done here is pointless -- truly pointless," Schifter said, adding that the useful work of the commission often "gets lost in the swarm of papers that really, when you look at it, makes no difference anywhere else in the world."
Blackwell added that the commission should no longer focus on such subjects as foreign debt, the right to health care and the right to development, which are better dealt with by other U.N. agencies.
"A key task for us is to gain sufficient support from other states to act decisively in respect to political killings, torture, imprisonment on political grounds, religious oppression, and the deprivation of democratic rights," Blackwell said.
Blackwell said that discussions were currently underway among regional groups on reforming the commission's annual agenda. He expressed the hope that some "fruitful results" would be forthcoming by the end of the UNCHR six-week session March 6.
NNNN
File Identification: 02/21/92, PO-506; 02/21/92, EP-521; 02/21/92, EU-506; 02/21/92, NE-506; 02/22/92, AR-103; 02/22/92, AS-109; 02/22/92, NA-104
Product Name: Wireless File
Product
Code: WF
Languages: Arabic; Spanish
Keywords: IRAQ-US RELATIONS; IRAQ/Politics & Government; HUMAN RIGHTS; ATROCITIES; UNITED NATIONS-HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION; BLACKWELL, J KENNETH; REPORTS &
STUDIES; UNITED NATIONS-SECURITY COUNCIL; SANCTIONS; HUSSEIN, SADDAM; SCHIFTER, R
Thematic Codes: 2HA; 1UN; 1NE
Target Areas: AR; EA; EU; NE
PDQ Text Link: 215807; 216107
USIA Notes: *92022106.POL
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