U.S. Criticizes China, Russia In Rights Report

In an examination of human rights in more than 190 countries during 2008, the State Department criticized many of its usual targets.

The United States sharply criticized China on Wednesday in its annual report on human rights, one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton soft-pedaled rights concerns during a visit to Beijing.

The State Department report also took aim at Russia, where it said civil liberties were "under siege," and noted a global outbreak in restrictive laws on non-governmental groups and the media, including the Internet.

In an examination of human rights in more than 190 countries during 2008, the report roundly criticized many of its usual targets, including Afghanistan, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Somalia, Myanmar and Zimbabwe.

"The most serious human rights abuses tended to occur in countries where unaccountable rulers wielded unchecked power or there was government failure or collapse, often exacerbated or caused by internal or external conflict," said the report, which regularly draws the anger of foreign governments targeted for criticism.

The report covers the final year of President George W. Bush's administration, which had been criticized for its own human rights record, including interrogation methods used on detainees and the Guantanamo prison.

New President Barack Obama has ordered Guantanamo closed in a year and adopted a harsher line against the possible torture of terrorism suspects. Clinton, criticized last week for putting concerns about China's human rights issues on the back burner, said the promotion of human rights was "essential to our foreign policy."

"Not only will we seek to live up to our ideals on American soil, we will pursue greater respect for human rights as we engage other nations and people around the world," she said.

The report was particularly harsh on China, saying its human rights record "remained poor and worsened in some areas."

"The Chinese government increased detention and harassment of dissidents, petitioners, human rights defenders and defense lawyers," it said, adding the abuses peaked around high-profile events such as the Olympic Games held in Beijing last summer.

'SERIOUS ABUSES'

"Other serious human rights abuses included extrajudicial killings, torture and coerced confessions of prisoners, and the use of forced labor, including prison labor," the report said.

The United States has long accused China of human rights abuses and pressed Beijing to grant greater autonomy to Tibet, but on her visit last week Clinton said their joint efforts to ease the global financial crisis, fight climate change and curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions came first.

Human rights groups criticized Clinton's stance and said it undermined U.S. arguments on human rights.

In what appeared to be a response, Clinton told reporters that "as secretary of state, I will continue to focus my own energies on human rights, and will engage as many others as I can to join me."

"I am looking for results, I am looking for changes that will actually improve the lives of the greatest numbers of people," she said.

The report said civil liberties in Russia "continued to be under siege, reflecting an erosion of the government's accountability to its citizens."

It said the conflict between Russia and Georgia had led to civilian casualties and the indiscriminate use of force, and government pressure had led to an increase in assaults on journalists.

The Russian failure to solve the murders of journalists such as Anna Politkovskaya, a Kremlin critic killed in 2006, has sparked a wave of criticism and concerns about political freedoms.

Three men accused of helping in Politkovskaya's murder were acquitted in a Russian court last week and authorities have not identified who ordered the killing nor captured the triggerman.

The report also found evidence around the world of more burdensome restrictions on the media and the Internet, and a boomerang effect in countries where human rights campaigners had pushed for more freedoms.

"Some countries increased repression in response to popular efforts to secure respect for human rights," the report said, pointing to Vietnam and China in particular.

"Many courageous human rights defenders who peacefully pressed for their own rights and those of their fellow countrymen and women were harassed, threatened, arrested and imprisoned, killed, or were subjected to violent extrajudicial means of reprisal," the report said.