SYDNEY -
Colin Powell calls it his new approach to global
prosperity. But for human-rights activists, Washington's
largess toward tainted Asian nations at best represents
a confused and misguided foreign policy.
The US
secretary of state last week presented a budget request
for the 2005 financial year that would substantially
boost an array of funding packages for countries on the
front line of the anti-terrorism war - and a few that
need an economic nudge. Indonesia, Pakistan, the
Philippines and Afghanistan are among the big winners of
a US$5.7 billion disbursement of military and
development aid that covers the whole gamut from defense
training and drugs eradication to education support.
Powell told the US Congress' Senate Budget
Committee that the cash, part of a $21.3 billion
foreign-operations program by the State Department, is
needed to strengthen global efforts against the spread
of weapons of mass destruction.
"President
[George W] Bush's approach to global economic growth
emphasizes proven American values: governing justly,
investing in people and encouraging economic freedom,"
he said. "To eradicate terrorism, the United States must
help create stable governments in nations that once
supported terrorism, go after terrorist support
mechanisms as well as the terrorists themselves, and
help alleviate conditions in the world that enable
terrorists to bring in new recruits."
Glowing
goals. But the rhetoric had a hollow ring for
human-rights groups, which were perplexed that Powell
had condemned the same countries only one day earlier in
his annual report on global freedom.
According
to Powell, the country studies support the White House's
strategy of creating a world "in which human rights and
fundamental freedoms are respected ... [and] tyrants and
terrorists cannot thrive".
Yet some security
forces appear to have used their US aid to perpetuate
questionable human-rights practices, prompting Amnesty
International to decry the administration's growing
"sincerity gap".
In Pakistan, which was awarded
$700 million from the 2005 draft estimates "to help
advance security and economic cooperation and
opportunity", at least 26 people were believed to have
died in custody from police torture last year.
Describing the Pakistani electoral system as deeply
flawed, the State Department said that recent
constitutional reforms had consolidated the dominance of
the armed forces and their leader, President General
Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup d'etat four
years ago.
"The government's human-rights record
remained poor; although there were some improvements in
a few areas, serious problems remained. Some members of
the security forces committed numerous serious
human-rights abuses," the country report stated. "Police
abused and raped citizens. Prison conditions remained
extremely poor and life-threatening, and police
arbitrarily arrested and detained citizens."
Indonesia is prohibited from receiving direct
military aid because of the poor human-rights record of
its security personnel, but nonetheless is slated to get
$70 million for economic, democracy and anti-terrorism
activities, including the tracking of criminal assets.
There will be additional funding for a program to
transform the national police into a civilian agency.
Although conditions have improved since the
Suharto era, the Indonesian government's human-rights
record was described as poor, with the police and other
security forces routinely committing murders, torture,
rape, beatings and arbitrary detentions. There was
limited protection for the basic rights of children,
women, peaceful protesters, journalists, disabled
persons, religious minorities and indigenous people,
with abuses especially evident in Aceh province, the
scene of a long-running separatist conflict.
Laos is also set to benefit from security aid,
mostly in the counter-narcotics field, as are Thailand
and the Philippines, both close allies in US
anti-terrorism efforts. However, all three attracted
black marks from the State Department report.
In
the Philippines, which will get $35 million of direct
aid and will also share in several regional programs,
the police and armed forces were blamed for unlawful
killings, disappearances, torture and arbitrary arrest
and detention.
"Police and local-government
leaders at times appeared to sanction extrajudicial
killings and vigilantism as expedient means of fighting
crime and terrorism," the report alleged. "Prison
conditions were harsh. Judges and prosecutors remained
poorly paid, overburdened, susceptible to corruption and
the influence of the powerful, and often failed to
provide due process and equal justice."
Thai
authorities were rebuked over the suspicious deaths of
more than 2,000 drug-trafficking suspects during a
government crackdown on organized crime, while there was
little motivation to investigate alleged cases of
arbitrary arrest. Routine exoneration of police,
resulting either from a failure to prosecute or
interference with the judicial process, discouraged the
relatives of victims from seeking justice and
contributed to a "climate of impunity" within security
forces.
Afghanistan will benefit from $225
million of aid directed at pro-democracy initiatives and
economic reconstruction, and a further $90 million will
go to security and anti-narcotics programs. Much of the
latter will go toward an upgrade of border operations
designed to support counter-terrorism efforts and to
choke off the flow of narcotics, including the
retraining of police units. There will also be a focus
on improved human-rights safeguards by police.
The State Department found a greater respect for
individual liberties in Afghanistan during 2002 as
tensions eased between the collective leadership in
Kabul and hardliners in the banished Taliban. However,
serious problems remained, especially outside the
capital, with the government generally powerless to
prevent atrocities by provincial warlords and elements
of the security forces.
"Members of local
security forces committed arbitrary, unlawful and some
extrajudicial killings, and officials used torture in
jails and prisons. Terrorist attacks and severe violence
continued," the report stated. "The remnants of the
Taliban and rogue warlords threatened, robbed, attacked
and occasionally killed local villagers, political
opponents and prisoners."
Human-rights activists
mostly accepted the country findings, but argued that
they had little relevance to the foreign policies being
pursued by the US administration, which appeared to pay
scant regard to internal political or individual
freedoms.
Washington-based Human Rights Watch
has been campaigning since the first Iraq war in 1991
for US leaders to uphold their contention that the
defense of human rights is vital to the fight against
terrorism. If this were the case, the freedom monitor
argued, the White House should use its own reports as a
guide in forging alliances, establishing spending
priorities and deciding where to locate military bases
overseas.
In a similar refrain, Amnesty
International (AI) said the Bush-Powell policy thrust
indicated that the US was "overlooking abuses by its
allies and justifying action against foes by post-facto
reference to human rights".
"A country's record
of torture, unfair trials and executions merits careful
consideration every time the US weighs providing
military or political support," said Alexandra Arriaga,
director of government relations for AI's US chapter.
"The US would be best served by a foreign policy that is
consistent with and supportive of the standards that
inform this report, rather than at odds with them.
"Future human-rights abuses - and possibly
future wars - could be averted if every member of the
administration consulted this report with the care that
went into its preparation," she said.
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2004 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved.
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