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The State Council Information Office Thursday issued The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2005 in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2005 issued by the US State Department yesterday. According to the Chinese report's preamble, the report was developed to help people understand the US, the self-proclaimed 'guardian of human rights'. For this purpose, it is necessary to probe into its own human rights abuses. The report lists a multitude of cases of serious human rights violations by the US both in and outside the country. The report reads: "As in previous years, the US State Department points the finger at more than 190 countries and regions (including China) but keeps silent on violations in the US." This is the seventh consecutive year that China has issued a human rights record of the US in response to the US State Department's annual report. The report contains more than 14,500 Chinese characters and is divided into seven parts, each dealing with a specific area: life and security of person; infringements of human rights by law enforcement and judicial organs; political rights and freedom; economic, social and cultural rights; racial discrimination; rights of women and children; and the violation of human rights by the US in other countries. "For a long time, the life and security of the people of the US have not been under efficient protection, and US society is characterized by widespread violence and crime." The US Justice Department reported on September 25, 2005 that there were 5,182,670 violent crimes in the US in 2004. There were 21.4 victims for every 1,000 people aged 12 and older, which amounts to about one violent crime victim in every 47 US residents. In relation to serious infringements upon personal rights and freedoms by law enforcement and judicial organs, spying is prevalent and illegal detention occurs from time to time. The recently exposed Snoopgate scandal is a good example. After the September 11 attacks, US President George W. Bush has repeatedly authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to tap domestic phone calls. With this authorization, the NSA is allowed to conduct surveillance on phone calls and e-mail of about 500 US citizens at a time. Between 2002 and 2004, there were at least 287 cases involving Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents accused of illegally conducting electronic surveillance. On January 9, 2006, a spokeswoman for the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection announced that in the 'anti-terrorism' fight, US customs has the right to open and inspect incoming private letters, which again sparked protests from citizens. "Police abuse is also very common in the US," the report adds. It quotes a report from the Los Angeles Times on July 14, 2005 about how Los Angeles police shot dead the 19-month-old daughter of a suspect while trying to arrest the suspect. The event triggered a huge public outcry. According to an Associated Press story on October 9, 2005, five New Orleans police officers battered a 64-year-old retired teacher on the street while trying to arrest him. Human rights violations in US prisons are also an issue because of the growing number of people being incarcerated. While Hurricane Katrina ravaged the southern parts of the US between August 29 and September 1, 2005, correctional officers from the New Orleans Sheriff's Department abandoned 600 inmates in a prison. They were abandoned in water up to chest and neck level, without food, water, electricity, fresh air, or functioning amenities for four days and nights. "The US prides itself as being the 'model of democracy' and hawks its model of democracy to the rest of the world. In fact, US 'democracy' is one for the wealthy and a 'game for the rich'." During New York City's mayoral elections in November 2005, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent US$77.89 million on his reelection campaign. That worked out to about US100 per vote. AP called it the "most expensive mayoral reelection in history." Although the US is the world's richest country, it has the highest poverty rate among the developed countries. It is the highest in the developed world and more than twice as high as in most other industrialized countries. Further, a study of eight advanced countries by the London School of Economics in 2005 found that the US has the worst social inequality situation. The US is a nation of immigrants of all races and cultures, with minority ethnic groups accounting for more than one-fourth of its population. But racial discrimination has long been a chronic malady of US society. According to The State of Black America 2005, an annual report published by the National Urban League that addresses issues relating to Black America and Americans, the income level of African-American families is only one-tenth of that of white families, and the welfare enjoyed by black Americans is only three quarters that of their white counterparts. The US also does not have a good record of safeguarding the rights of women and children. A survey by the US Census Bureau said the median earnings of women and men in 2004 were US$31,223 and US$40,798, respectively. The female-to-male earnings ratio was 77 percent. In terms of the child poverty index, the US ranked second last among 22 developed nations in the world. Moving on to international violations, the report states, "Pursuing unilateralism in the international arena, the US government grossly violates the sovereignty and human rights of other countries in contempt of universally recognized international norms." The US government frequently commits wanton slaughters of innocents in its war efforts and military operations in other countries. The USA Today newspaper on December 13, 2005 quoted a 2004 study published in the medical journal, The Lancet, as saying that it was estimated that about 100,000 Iraqis, mostly women and children, had died in the war on Iraq led by the US government in 2003. In 2005, news of prisoner abuse by US forces in Abu Ghraib made news headlines, and was hot on the heals of the 2004 Guantanamo Bay prisoner abuse scandal. According to media reports, US forces in Iraq employed various torture tactics to extract information from prisoners. They were also accused of systematic abuse of Iraqi detainees, including sleep deprivation, strapping them to walls, hitting them with baseball bats, denying them access to food and water, forcing them to listen to extremely loud music in completely dark places for days on end, letting dogs bite them, and even scaring them by putting them in cages with lions. "For years, the US government has ignored and concealed deliberately serious violations of human rights in its own country for fear of criticism," the report states. Yet it has issued reports making unwarranted charges of human rights violations by other countries, an act that fully exposes its hypocrisy and double standards on the human rights issue. This has naturally met with strong resistance and opposition from other countries. "We urge the US government to look squarely at its own human rights problems, reflect what it has done in the human rights field and take concrete measures to improve its own human rights situation and status." The report concludes: "The US government should stop provoking international confrontation on the issue of human rights, and make a fresh start to contribute more to international human rights cooperation and to the healthy development of the international human rights cause." (Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2006) |
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