UK Accused of Complicity in Torture

Human Rights Watch yesterday accused European countries, including Britain, of undermining human rights worldwide by courting countries such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia while ignoring evidence of their extensive abuses.

The US-based organization, in its annual report, criticizes Britain, Germany and France for their relationship with Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and other states. It claims the Europeans are subordinating human rights "in their relations with others whom they deemed useful in fighting terrorism or pursuing other goals".

It also criticizes Britain for its policy of sending foreign terrorist suspects to their native countries where torture is routine.

The Human Rights Watch report usually concentrates on countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, but the prime targets of the latest one are the US and European countries.

Kenneth Roth, head of the organization, says in the introduction to the report that the US and Europe used to lead in promoting human rights but their recent behavior, especially Washington’s defense of torture and inhumane treatment, has undermined their credibility.

"In 2005 it became disturbingly clear that the abuse of detainees had become a deliberate, central part of the Bush administration’s strategy of interrogating terrorist suspects," the report says.

The EU, eager to repair the damage caused by disagreement over the war in Iraq, largely ignores US transgressions.

Mr Roth says the US approach to human rights has been "practice what I preach, not what I do". He adds: "Some US allies, especially Britain, are moving in the same disturbing direction, while few other powers are stepping in to fill the breach."

Human Rights Watch says: "The EU position on Russia in 2005 made the US defense of human rights seem vigorous." Business and energy dominate the EU approach to Russia.

Instead of focusing on Chechnya, media restrictions and other abuses, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, the French president, and Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor until last year, were engaged in "an unseemly competition" to proclaim the closeness of their relationship with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

Human Rights Watch said that Mr Schröder visited Saudi Arabia without public mention of political reform.

Mr Roth describes Britain as being "complicit in torture" by sending terrorist suspects back to their native countries even when torture is commonplace. The British government has signed, or is still negotiating, memorandums of understanding with countries in the Middle East and North Africa in which they promise not to torture suspects sent from Britain.

But Human Rights Watch says the memorandums "are not worth the paper they are written on" and said it was impossible for the British government to monitor what happened to suspects returned to their native countries. "Round-the-clock monitoring might deny torturers an opportunity to ply their trade, but Blair, like the Bush government, contemplates only periodic monitoring."

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the memorandum of understanding "allows us to deport suspect terrorists and thereby disrupt their activities".