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  • Russia exposes true colors of the West

    PRAVDA, Russia
    Dec 30 2011


    Russia exposes true colors of the West

    30.12.2011

    For the first time in many years, Russia's Foreign Ministry published
    an extensive report about the state of affairs in the field of human
    rights in the United States of America, Canada, EU, NATO members and
    Georgia. The report from the ministry also touched upon Libya, where
    NATO's incursion has led to the bloody change of power. The document
    is not flawless. However, it clearly shows that democracy in the West
    is not as perfect as it is painted.

    For a long time the monopoly on the publication of such reports
    belonged to the United States. The Americans tend to present certain
    countries as outcasts. Year after year Russia is highlighted in the
    reports of the State Department. According to them, Russia has issues
    with the elections, freedom of speech and religious minorities.
    Something similar is published by the European Union. At one time,
    Chinese Foreign Ministry published a report on human rights in the
    United States.

    Russian foreign policy was clearly defensive. Russia always had to
    justify itself, responding to attacks from the West. And then,
    finally, Russia published a nearly 100-page document describing human
    rights violations in the United States, Canada, EU and NATO, as well
    as allied Georgia. The actions of the West during the war in Libya
    have not been overlooked in the report either. Each region is assigned
    a separate section.

    The largest section is devoted to the U.S. - the country which has
    declared itself "the standard of democracy." "The situation there is
    far from the ideals proclaimed by Washington. The main unresolved
    issue is an odious prison at Guantanamo Bay ... President Obama has
    legalized indefinite terms without trial... The current administration
    continues to use most of the methods of social control and
    interference with the privacy of Americans," the document says.

    "There are continued violations of international humanitarian law in
    armed conflict and during anti-terrorist operations. Chronic systemic
    problems in the American society are getting more acute, including
    racial discrimination, xenophobia, overcrowding in jails, unreasonable
    use of the death penalty ... The U.S. has one of the weakest in the
    West security systems for workers' rights for Collective Bargaining",
    stated Russian diplomats.

    "The extraterritorial application of the American law does the
    greatest harm in terms of US-Russian relations. It leads to a
    violation of fundamental rights and freedoms of Russian citizens,
    including arbitrary arrests and abductions from third countries (the
    most obvious examples are the cases of Viktor Bout and K.
    Yaroshenko)," says the report. The authors also note "a very acute
    problem of violence against adopted children from Russia in American
    families."

    Further the report lists such things as violation of the rights of
    prisoners in CIA prisons, the problems with freedom of expression and
    harassment of employees and the founder of the website WikiLeaks, the
    death of at least 111,000 Iraqis and 14 thousands of Afghans in the
    wars unleashed by the United States. There is racial discrimination of
    blacks and Hispanics, and religious discrimination against American
    Muslims.

    Not everything is well in the U.S. with human rights, freedom of
    speech and racism, and especially with the wars. Of course, one can
    parry that in Russia the labor laws are less than perfect, and there
    are problems with the media, and national relationships are not
    perfect as well. However, Russia is not instructing the world how to
    live, and does not throw bombs on other countries. The presence of
    problems in Russia does not change the fact that the U.S. is far from
    ideal.

    With regard to the European Union, the Russian Foreign Ministry has
    supported human rights criticism from Human Rights Watch on the rights
    of immigrants from Asia and Africa and the anti-Muslim rhetoric. "The
    main conclusion is the overall growth of xenophobia and intolerance in
    the EU, promotion of far-right rhetoric ... European governments do
    not try to fight it, but, rather, vice versa, use the trend in
    domestic purposes," the Russian diplomats said.

    "According to the AOHR (EU Agency for Fundamental Human Rights - Ed.)
    in 2009 more than any others the following nationalities were
    discriminated at work: North Africans in Italy (30 percent), Roma in
    Greece (29 percent), Roma in the Czech Republic (27 percent), Africans
    in Malta (27 percent), Africans in Ireland (26 percent), Roma in
    Hungary (25 percent), Brazilians in Portugal (24 percent), Turks in
    Denmark (22 percent), Roma in Poland (22 percent)," the report says.

    It is important that Russia described the problem that the EU remained
    silent about for years. They say that they do not have problems with
    the Muslims or Roma. They do have them, however, and last year they
    demonstrated it by the shooting in Norway or the influx of refugees
    from North Africa. Yet, there is another side to the issue: can
    Muslims or blacks demand the same rights as the indigenous people? Can
    they pointedly ignore laws and customs accepted in Europe? Would Roma
    themselves be willing to adapt to a normal society? Therefore,
    complaints to the authorities of European countries are still
    excessive.

    Sections on Germany, France, Britain and Sweden, report on the growth
    of xenophobia and the issues of Muslims. Swedes, among other things,
    are accused of supporting the Chechen rebels. Finland is also
    mentioned in connection with the endless stories about taking children
    away from Russian mothers. In the case of Hungary there is a mention
    of an attempt to revise the results of the Second World War. Poland,
    Bulgaria and Romania "only" suffer from inadequate legislation.

    A separate section is devoted to the Baltic. "The discriminatory
    policy of the authorities of the Baltic states against the Russian
    minority living there remains nearly unchanged. Of particular concern
    is the unresolved problem of mass statelessness in Latvia (nearly 330
    thousand "aliens") and Estonia (nearly 100 thousand "aliens") and
    consequent violation of the rights of Russian-speaking minorities in
    these countries," stated the Russian Foreign Ministry.

    "Reduction of the Russian-language news and cultural and educational
    space, as well as the persecution of World War II veterans and law
    enforcement agencies of the former USSR is also observed in Lithuania.
    Of particular concern is the continuation of the trend to rewrite the
    history of the Second World War Baltic states," Russian diplomat said.

    Problems in Georgia were very clearly outlined in the report. There
    are a lot of cases when Russian citizens (including ethnic Georgians)
    fell victims of provocations of local security forces. Attention is
    drawn to the dispersal of the protests. Particularly highlighted is
    the largest violation of the rights of national minorities of the
    country - the Armenian and Azerbaijani.

    "Armenian-populated region of Samtskhe-Javakheti (in Armenian
    Javakheti) is in dire socio-economic situation ... Administrative
    positions in local government are occupied predominantly by Georgian.
    The Georgian authorities have deliberately carried out a
    discriminatory policy against Azerbaijanis. Resettlement of
    Azerbaijanis in neighboring Azerbaijan is becoming mass in nature,"
    the Russian diplomats stated.

    The next section of the report is on Canada. The country was berated
    for the brutality against the demonstrators, for the oppression of
    Indians and Eskimos, and lack of security of Canadian citizens abroad.
    However, there is not a single word in the report about endless
    military exercises in the Arctic and threats of Canadian authorities
    to Russia.

    The last section is devoted to NATO operations in Libya. "NATO leaders
    officially deny the facts of civilian deaths as a result of air
    strikes by coalition forces, indirect victims, which was the reason
    for the blockade of the western regions of Libya, the destruction of
    civilian infrastructure," the diplomat said.

    Then follows a list of deaths of civilians from NATO attacks and
    atrocities of Western-backed rebels. The highlights are "extrajudicial
    execution of the representatives of the former regime and its
    supporters with the tacit consent of NATO members," numerous cases of
    "crimes of the former Libyan armed opposition."

    The document is not without drawbacks. Thus, it has no foreword or
    conclusion. Sections on the United States, the Baltic States, Georgia,
    Libya, and the largest countries in Europe are very detailed. However,
    the sections of the smaller European countries, as well as the entire
    EU and Canada raise questions and seem to be rather "raw". The
    publication of the report seems untimely. During Christmas and New
    Year holidays even the politicians are not particularly into policy.

    However, the first attempt was pretty good. Russia has shown that it
    will not always have to justify its behavior after publication of the
    American and European reports. It can provide pre-emptive strikes in
    its foreign policy. Hopefully, such reports from the Foreign Ministry
    of Russia will become commonplace and improve with time.

    Vadim Trukhachev

    Pravda.Ru

    http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/30-12-2011/120124-russia_foreign_ministry_west-0/

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