February 1993, Page 61

Human Rights

By Andrea W. Lorenz

Human Rights Watch Urges Clinton Administration to Take a Bold Stand on Human Rights

In December, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the largest U.S.-based human rights organization, published its annual world report, Events of 1992. The report's 402 pages provide an overview of the human rights records of the world communities to which the organization has access. The report's particular value lies not in its exposition of the rampant human rights abuses committed in 1992 but in its bold criticism of Western—especially American—leaders for turning a blind eye on many countries' human rights abuses in the name of political expediency.

Human Rights Watch criticizes the Bush and Reagan administrations for providing moral and financial support to leaders perceived as useful for their anti-Communist stances despite their often horrific human rights records. The report blames a "shallow vision of democracy" for the appearance of elected tyrants who masqueraded as ''freedom fighters,'' an appellation that the Reagan and Bush administrations bestowed freely when it suited their political ends. Their one-time designation as "freedom fighters" could not mask their appeal to intolerance and virulent nationalism among their communities, the HRW report said. In addition, HRW criticizes the Bush administration for lacking the foresight to anticipate new threats and the creativity to fashion new ways to combat them.

The report cites the example of Turkey, whose brutal, often sadistic repression of its native Kurdish community includes the rape and torture of Kurdish women and the murder of journalists and intellectuals. Rather than condemning these attacks, following the killing of 91 people during violence that broke out during Kurdish New Year celebrations last spring, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler went so far as to congratulate Turkey on its "use of restraint."

Kurdish refugees interviewed by the Washington Report in November said that there is widespread belief among Kurds that the Bush administration agreed to ignore Turkey's repression of its Kurdish community in return for permission to use Turkish air bases during the Gulf war.

Human Rights Watch also accuses the Bush administration of hiding its unwillingness to criticize lack of democratic institutions in some allied countries behind the guise of cultural sensitivity. For example, the report charges that administration officials cited "cultural differences" in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to explain their unwillingness to press harder for democratic evolution. The HRW report charges that the State Department praised political changes in Saudi Arabia as "very important steps" although they did not diminish royal authority or significantly advance prospects for broader popular participation in government.

HRW also takes the State Department to task for its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1991. It accuses the Department of soft-pedaling continuing abuses by the authorities in Kuwait and Israel and for remaining silent about new evidence of the torture and unjustified killing of Palestinians. The State Department, says HRW, often fails to take any stand on its own findings. For example, the Department's report states that "political and extra-judicial killings are not condoned by Israel." HRW contends that "such a bald assertion cried out for comment in light of the continuing furor over unjustified killings by IDF undercover units."

In his introduction to the HRW report, Deputy Director Kenneth Roth advises the Clinton administration to articulate a human rights policy. He points out that the threat of withholding aid can be a powerful tool to promote human rights but that the Bush administration continued to distribute foreign assistance to governments which commit serious abuses, including Israel, Egypt and Turkey. Authorities in these three countries were not told publicly that they risked cuts in assistance if they continued to violate human rights.

Although Human Rights Watch praises the Bush administration for boldly insisting on linking Israel's request for $10 billion in loan guarantees to a halt in the building of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, it asserts that, "While Israel itself may be a democracy, Palestinian residents of the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip have no opportunity to exercise democratic rights, and many violations are committed by Israeli security forces.'' HRW urges the Clinton administration to "use the same kind of leverage [as that used by Bush] to curb torture and unjustified killings of Palestinians."

To Human Rights Watch, 1992 was noteworthy more for the persistent determination of authoritarian governments to manipulate the concept of democracy than for any sign that they sought to respect its spirit. HRW maintains that the best antidote to the poisonous recipe for the explosion of ethnic grievances is for a society to cultivate a vigorous free press and a vibrant range of independent associations. It thus devotes rare praise to two countries where it says the overall human rights situation has improved and whose leaders have engendered, albeit in fits and starts, the development of the institutions of civil society. They are Jordan and Yemen.

In Jordan, the 1989 parliamentary election heralded a "new era of pluralisms," HRW says, and today more than 50 political groups operate openly in the country. In addition, HRW applauds King Hussein's decision in April 1992 to repeal martial law, which had been in force since 1967.

As for Yemen, since the unification of North and South in 1990, over 40 political parties have sprung up, and numerous opposition publications have enjoyed previously unheard-of freedoms. HRW anticipates that Yemen's first parliamentary elections since unification, which had been scheduled for November 1992 but were postponed until April 1993, will be "the first legislative contest in the Arabian peninsula based on universal suffrage and competition between political parties."

The report also hails the May 1992 elections in Iraqi Kurdistan as free and fair. Newly elected local authorities proclaimed their respect for human rights and a newly established Kurdish human rights organization is the first such body to operate on Iraqi soil, the HRW reported.

Andrea W. Lorenz is the features editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.