The UN Human Rights Committee is a body which routinely pulls its punches. It treats member states with respect, whether they deserve it or not. The UN is of course composed of nations many of which have much to hide on human rights, so the glass houses and stones argument is much applied.
In that context, the new advisory report of the UN Human Rights Committee on Uzbekistan is absolutely damning – as damning as these reports ever get. It contains one paragraph of “Positive Aspects” and 25 paragraphs of “Concerns”.
Concerns include lack of judicial independence, widespread use of torture, the position of women, the failure to produce bodies or graves of those executed by the state, lack of freedom of speech and movement, and use of forced labour – to name but a few.
Not even the UN can pretend that the human rights situation in Uzbekistan is anything other than abysmal.
Still more astonishing then that the Home Office has refused the asylum applications of every single one of the few dozen escapees from Uzbekistan to make it to the UK – which still has the Soviet exit visa system and locks its people in. Even last week the Home Office was still claiming at immigration hearings that there is no human rights problem in Uzbekistan. (Fortunately judges have been less blinkered and asylum cases have been won on appeal).
The UN and EU countries continue to use Uzbekistan as a major supply base for the occupation of Afghanistan. Major new contracts between the US and Uzbekistan were signed in March 2009, and Hilary Clinton is to pay an official visit to President Karimov in November this year.
Even more disgusting is that it now emerges that the newly reinvigorated US/Uzbek relationship was made possible in negotiations because the US agreed to contract Gulnara Karimova’s company FMN Logistics to provide the transport for all the US supplies passing through Central Asia to the US forces in Afghanistan.
Not only that, but the Karimov company FMN Logistics is involved in construction and supply services on the US airbases in Afghanistan itself, and has been involved in the massive expansion work to the prison at Baghram Airbase to provide a replacement Guantanamo torture centre further away from media access.
The Pentagon contracts are worth $850 million a year to the Karimovs.
Here are your new colleagues at work in Glasgow, Craig. Care to comment?
tinyurl.com/yl69ass
Richard; I didn’t hear about the fall guy. What I heard, from an old East Eender, was that the ‘vinegar’ Jesus was given was a potion which simulated death, and he was later revived in the tomb (hence the absence of the body).
Who knows, and in fact it is all sounding to start a bit bananas. Still, I don’t think anybody except a dictator wants worship, and Jesus, I agree, had some nice ideas, water into wine among them (though I would have held out for Lagavulin).
Vronsky; the best local councillor I knew was a Conservative. I still wouldn’t vote for their national manifesto.
Sorry about various grammatical/sense errors, there – I was thinking/typing aloud. ‘Starting to sound’; obviously. And East Ender, not East Eeender.
Craig
I make no distinction between the people who invaded Poland to ethnically cleans in to their fatherland and the people who invaded Palestine for the same person.
Zionism and Nazism are the same ideology,the only differences are who they declare as the superior race and who they declare as the inferior race.
All else is the same.
And just noticed Craig was back on, so sorry for comment hogging too.
“a potion which simulated death, and he was later revived in the tomb (hence the absence of the body)”
Ah, that’s nicer, and makes more sense. It seems a very ‘word of mouth’ kind of story, I’m not sure where it comes from.
Water into Lagavulin ? Now that’s a bums-on-pews competition I’d like to see.
Maybe there were two female suicide bombers or maybe the two women were just travelling and someone wanted to blame the two women and planted bombs in their bags.
In 7/7 there is evidence that a bomb exploded from under the train not from the bags of one of the so called bombers, who may have just been taking part in a terror rehearsal organised by Peter Power’s company at the behest of the intelligence services.
I’m not supposed to be here, so I’ll keep this short.
The Vatican is using the Israeli defense!
VATICAN CITY ?” Pope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher is likening accusations against the pope and the church in the sex abuse scandal to “collective violence” suffered by the Jews.
The Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa said in a Good Friday sermon, with the pope listening to him in St. Peter’s Basilica, that a Jewish friend has said the accusations remind him of the “more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.” (continues)
http://tinyurl.com/ykt6fkc
So if you talk about child abuse, you’re anti-Christian …
Thanks. I am just talking to a genuine Christian, and I think they are too rare, who is pointing out that Jesus, whatever happened, went to the cross, standing by his message of love. ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do’; he said, as they nailed him up. ‘To Shoot an Elephant’, where reporters are embedded with the Gazan ambulance services, has the same message actually.
Her amazing idea is ‘Stop! Stop dropping bombs and buy them some fucking food instead’.
Try and argue against that one.
technicolour, in a strong field, that’s a fairly silly belief that Jesus of Nazareth (reportedly, based on hearsay) expressed.
It would have given Hitler a pass. He could have liquidated far more people than he did. And his hold over Europe would have resulted in all sorts of other bad things.
“evidence that a bomb exploded from under the train”
The evidence is all silly, you conspiracy nut.
Stephen: permit me to answer your specific questions about Saddam.
“Don’t you believe Saddam was a facist or totalitarian”
Absolutely. An obvious wrong’un right from the start. Quite what the West saw in him I’ll never fathom.
“Do you think he should just have been left in place?”
I think the Iraqi people should not have been prevented from getting rid of him. Bombing the Shi’ite opposition in the south and allowing Saddam in to mop up afterwards showed a distinct lack of foresight on the part of NATO.
“Do you think that his invasion of Kuwait was justified?”
Absolutely not. Nevertheless hisnoriginal justification for the invasion – that Kuwait had been illegally slant-drilling into Iraqi oilfields – was accepted by the US and he was given the nod to proceed.
“Do you think that his gassing of Kurds was justified?”
Again, absolutely not. Quite why thenWest provided him with the weapons to do this beggars belief. Ditto the supply of chemical weapons that he used against Iran, another crime that often gets left off the list for some reason.
“If not, hoiw do you think he should have been got rid off?”
The US has a well tried and tested method for displacing governments it does not like or who have outgrown their usefulness. It covertly supports an internal opposition faction with arms and cash and lets them get on with it. If there is no such faction it creates one. Examples of this method include Indonesia, Iran in 1953, Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, need I go on? It only elects for direct military action and occupation when occupation was the real objective from the beginning.
Mirror mirror on the wall –
who is the fairest of them all?
A Review of the Conservative
National Security Green Paper – SUGGESTS
A ruthless Conservative government devoid of compassion,
justice and humanitarian strength.
The proof from the
NSA green paper sub paragraphs:-
4.2 Building a capacity for preventative action.
Here we note a Conservative Party
agrees with pre-emptive war-fare.
That smashing a country like Iraq
is ‘both moral and sensible.’
4.5 Military contribution to homeland security and resilience.
Here we note a Conservative Party will use a
permanent military command (the armed forces) to back up the police force
in crowd control, demonstrations and even strikes.
VOTE CONSERVATIVE – VOTE CONFLICT
MJ: “that Kuwait had been illegally slant-drilling into Iraqi oilfields – was accepted by the US and he was given the nod to proceed.”
Bullshit; that’s just a very effective piece of Hussein propaganda. Glaspie was directing the issue of who the U.S. would back in an international dispute. Ever heard of the ICJ? In any event, she was set up, and people keep buying into it.
“the best local councillor I knew was a Conservative. I still wouldn’t vote for their national manifesto.”
Me neither, but politics has become a branch of confusion marketing. We’d likely agree that you can’t get a fag paper between Labour and the Tories, but I’m trying to help the discussion by pointing out that in Scotland, where the LDs have had clearer visibility, they clearly consider themselves more Tory/Labour (aggressively right wing) than nationalist (cautiously leftish). We hyperboreans have material evidence that the Lib Dems are indistinguishable from Tory and Labour, and you should be interested.
I once went to a ceilidh (Scottish party with dancing) where almost all the guests were either Lib Dem or SNP. It was impossible to pick a fight with them (I’m SNP) – we seemed to agree on just about everything. Is it only in Scotland that the Lib Dems have this abyss between their London careerists and their grass roots membership? That disconnect exists to a varying extent in all the parties, but in the case of the Lib Dems it seems particularly gross. By contrast, the occasional New Lab drone posting here seems to have completely internalised the values of his executive – there is no possibility of uncomfortable cognitive dissonance for the likes of Alan Wotsisname.
I’m trying to dig Craig up a bit. He moralises against the hunt, then dons pinks.
Vronsky: people I know in Scotland who would vote Lib Dem if in England, are going to vote SNP.
MJ: thank you.
Larry: get help.
Sorry, Larry (whoever whatever you are) that sounded cheesy. Still, I suppose we all learn from each other?
It’s not Apatite.
This may be the only time I agree with Larry, but on this small point he is correct. It’s apartheid.
Arsalan
Laysa ba’dalkufr1 thanb
Asbir nafsaka ma’alladheena yad’ouna Rabbahum bilghadawati wal’asheeyi yureedouna wajhahu
The sin of disbelief in Allah far outweighs all other crimes, so they try to wind us up by expressing their disbelief in order to distract us from the crimes against the Muslims which we draw to people’s attention.
The middle-aged gent in leafy Surrey, the Israeli soldier who targets a child, the owner of this blog, are all going directly down the chute to hell for disbelieving in Allah.
All of the crimes against the Muslims are indirect consequences of their refusal to comply with the gift that Allah glory be to him, fixed in them, the gift of faith.
The gent is kind to his ageing mum who has dementia; the Israeli soldier spends two hours every day reciting memorial innovations-to-his-now-defunct-religion; the owner of this blog cares passionately about politics and torture.
It isn’t enough to win the pleasure of Allah on the day of judgement, because they failed to recognise the sending of our prophet peace be upon him, who is the prophet of our time.
For this statement, and this statement alone, you will see the democratic system function in the way it is intended, by removing the instructions of God from the ordinance of human affairs. In other words, if we will not change our statement that Islam is the only way to succeed, then we can’t expect the world to help us.
We could help you, if only you dropped the bit about religion, and we’re not obliged to help you if you keep it in. The world is going round in spite of and not because of them. So, calm down, my brother, and don’t take any notice of them.
Inshaallah Aafia, and all the other victims of the aggression of all ages and nations through history against the Muslims, is taking her place with Allah right now. They cannot destroy us by attacking our bodies and they cannot destroy us by their tongues.
Civilised nations are ready to borrow vast sums of money to destroy Islam because of a simple instruction to worship God. My reply to them is:
amoutu bigaithikum. Die in your anger ( at the truth of Islam ).
Anno, I understand your anger, but to claim that Craig and other good people are damned for eternity is akin to expressing views like those of certain Christian sects who believe in the ‘Elect’ or like those right-wing nutters who believe in ‘the Rapture’ and that it will be attained via nuclear war and the destruction of all Jews and Muslims.
With respect, it is God who decides, not you or I. To set oneself up beside God is not prudent, from a Muslim perspective.
It’s also rather impolite to our gracious host, something which also goes against Muslim benificence.
Please don’t shout at me now.
No, I do not claim to know who will go to Hell and who, to Paradise. The Muslim view is that only God can decide such things. To claim to know such things is to set oneself up beside God.
Suhayl
Don’t be silly.I didn’t say I know who is going to or not going to go to heaven. May God forgive us all. If the religion did not tell us the criteria for entering or not entering heaven, it would be very unfair on human beings if they hadn’t been informed. Talk sense man.
“With respect, it is God who decides”
Hilarious.
You criticize his religious belief just before you talk about your phony space god.
Look can’t we all agree that Larry can go to hell?
Watched two films tonight, American Radical and Sicko.
The first is Norman Finkelstein’s story, and the second is Michael Moore’s critique of American healthcare.
What struck me in both was the raw naked humanity on display.
In one case it was the joy on the faces of young Palestinians at having their pain certified valid by a Jewish scholar and man of the book, and in the other the tears of American 911 firemen and women who received medical treatment in Cuba that was not available to them in the US.
A wonderful curative for the political cynicism in which we often retreat is the ordinary, the everyday human experience of life and the way we’re all the same despite what our leaders say. Both films achieve that.
America can’t afford to pay for its own healthcare but can afford to pay for Israeli healthcare.
Imagine if we were all just human beings sharing a planet, with the same hopes and dreams, and fears and weaknesses.
What profit is there in that?
American healthcare is like De Beers diamonds.
It could be in more plentiful supply, but by restricting production you make it more expensive than it needs to be and garner greater profits.
It’s an old trick.
It’s funny the way the most democratic society in the western world is the only one that has fallen for it.
There’s something to be said for just a little bit of elite noblesse oblige input, especially when so many are still not up to speed on how it all really works.
I blame education; or rather the lack of it.
Wow! Lots of fun going on in here!
Now everyone’s being assigned where there’ll be spending eternity.
I hope wherever I am going anno and arsalan won’t be there. Spending eternity with them really would be Hell.
“The sin of disbelief in Allah far outweighs all other crimes”
That certainly explains a lot.