Musharraf only leader shamed in Amnesty’s rights report

“President Musharraf must take immediate steps for restoration of the deposed judges and order an independent investigation into the assassination of Ms Benazir Bhutto,” Amnesty International Report 2008 said.

Amnesty’s criticism of the Pakistani leader was linked to the “hollowness of the US Administration’s call for democracy and freedom abroad” displayed in “its continued support of President Musharraf, as he arrested thousands of lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders and political activists for demanding democracy, the rule of law, and an independent judiciary in Pakistan.”

A number of other countries, including China, Russia and Myanmar, have come under Amnesty’s critical microscope, but Musharraf is the only international leader to be named and shamed by the organisation.

Underlining Musharraf’s “repressive policies”, the foreword to the report said “enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention have fed grievances, helped to spur anti-western sentiment and laid the seeds for greater instability in the region.

“The Pakistani people have shown their strong repudiation of President Musharraf’s policies, even as the USA continues to embrace him,” it said. MORE PTI HSR GD 05291643 DEL AMNESTY-MUSHARRAF 2 LST The report also asked world leaders to apologise for six decades of human rights failure and recommit themselves to deliver concrete improvements.

“The human rights flash-points in Darfur, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Iraq and Myanmar demand immediate action,” said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International in the report for State of the World’s Human Rights.

The report said 60 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations, people are still tortured or ill-treated in at least 81 countries, face unfair trials in at least 54 countries and are not allowed to speak freely in at least 77 countries.

It cautioned that the biggest threat to the future of human rights is the absence of a shared vision and collective leadership.

Besides, Khan said China must “live up to the human rights promises it made around the Olympic Games and allow free speech and freedom of the press and end re-education through labour.”

“The USA must close Guantanamo detention camp and secret detention centres, prosecute the detainees under fair trial standards or release them, and unequivocally reject the use of torture and ill-treatment,” the organisation official added.