Human Rights Watch Slams West

HOW THE US AND EUROPEAN POWERS ENABLE TYRANNY
Thomas Riggins

It is no surprise to Marxists and other progressives to be told that the US and its European allies are only promoting make believe democracy and are actually only interested in the political control and financial exploitation of other peoples. It is nice to see bourgeois human rights groups come to the same conclusions.

On 1/31/2008 the AP had a story on Human Rights Watch's annual report, which just came out. It complains that the US et al often lets tyrants off the hook simply because they go through the motions of having “free” elections.

K. Roth the organization's executive director says, “It’s now too easy for autocrats to get away with mounting a sham democracy. That’s because too many Western governments insist on elections and leave it at that.”

He also said the West ignores “the key rights issues that make a democracy function: a free press, peaceful assembly and a functioning civil society that can really challenge power.”

The HRW’s leader has been moved to claim that, “It seems [say it’s not so!] Washington and European governments will accept even the most dubious election so long as the ‘victor’ is a strategic or commercial ally.” It’s shocking to think the US uses all its talk about “democracy” as a simple ploy to justify its own interests [Iraq and oil, for example].

AP also reports that HRW says the US et al “have made it difficult to demand that offending governments honor human rights by committing abuses themselves in campaigning against terror.” Imagine!

Sean McCormack from the US State Department defended the US by saying, “I don’t think there’s any question about where we stand in terms of promotion of democracy.”
He didn’t mention, such examples as our support for such shinning examples as Egypt and Pakistan, nor our removal of the freely elected government of Haiti a few years ago.

The HRW report lists all the usual suspects as violators of democracy over 75 countries were listed. Curiously Venezuela, a country the US calls undemocratic, was not among those mentioned in the AP story. I agree with Mr. McCormack—there is no question where the US stands when it comes to democracy.