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[casi] Useful quotes [formerly: Blair at odds with Amnesty oversanctions blame]




There's a feast of very useful quotes in that Amnesty International:
"Amnesty International and the current Iraq crisis"
http://web.amnesty.org/web/web.nsf/pages/iraq_faq

AI predicts that military intervention in Iraq will lead to a "humanitarian
crisis".

Regarding the impact of sanctions: it mentions how there is a "general
consensus that sanctions are significantly contributing to the humanitarian
crisis" and that "the situation overall remains critical".

It notes, that "Sanctions have jeopardized...the life of hundreds of
thousands of individuals, many of them children." AI's use of the word
"jeopardized" leaves much to be desired.

In a highly critical condemnation of the UN Security Council it suggest
that it bears its "share of the responsibility for failing to heed the
calls to lift all sanctions provisions that result in grave violations of
the rights of the Iraqi people".

Regarding our, ahem, attempt to introduce freedom and democracy to
Afghanistan: It notes how "Despite the repeated calls of human rights and
humanitarian organizations, the international community failed to make
Afghanistan a priority until the conflict spread well beyond the country's
borders."

Referring, presumably, to our buddies in the Northern Alliance, it mentions
how "Others [in addition to the Taliban] who have committed human rights
abuses with impunity remain".

It saves some withering comments for the recent UK government dossier on
human rights violations in Iraq:

It mentions how the UK Foreign Office dossier "re-publishes many of our
findings".
Furthermore, this attention is now being given to these abuses rather
"belatedly".

Perhaps most damning of all, it ends with a devastating indictment of our
human rights policy: "Selective and opportunistic attention to human rights
serves only to undermine international human rights standards".


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