Ethiopia says U.S. human rights report "full of hearsays"

Ethiopia says U.S. human rights report "full of hearsays"
www.chinaview.cn
2006-03-14 04:20:07
ADDIS ABABA, March 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Ethiopia said on Monday a U.S. report regarding human rights situations in the Horn of Africa country is "full of hearsays."
The report, released last week by the U.S. State Department, focuses on the situations of human rights of several countries, including Ethiopia, said a statement from Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry.
The report's allegations concerning human rights violation in Ethiopia was "totally groundless," the statement said.
Ethiopia gives special attention to respect of human rights as enshrined in the national constitution, it said.
Ethiopia has been mobilizing the entire governmental bodies and institutions as well as citizens with a view to implementing human rights conventions practically, it added.
Ethiopia has also striven to "minimize human rights violations that may occur as a result of dangerous strategy formulated by opposition parties," the statement said.
The violence "instigated by oppositions" claimed the lives of members of the police and citizens, it said.
However, the endorsement of the report by the U.S. State Department through its Human Right Bureau, which "did not" base on facts and "without verifying complaints submitted to it with the intention of political gain," makes it "questionable," the statement said.
The statement said the U.S. State Department has "not attempted" to verify the positions of those bodies and the government in particular regarding the complaints, which it said, is "unethical."
It said the report does not have any benefit at all both to ensuring human rights and development of democracy in the country.

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Eritrea accuses U.S. of hypocrisy on human rights
Sat Mar 11, 2006 10:16 AM GMT


By Ed Harris
ASMARA (Reuters) - Eritrea accused Washington on Saturday of hypocrisy over the release of the annual U.S. human rights report, saying in the wake of prison abuse scandals it had no moral grounds to criticise other nations.
The State Department report, which covered countries around the world, said Eritrea's record on human rights had worsened and the government continued to commit serious abuses.
"The U.S. administration has no legal or moral ground to point its fingers at other countries on human rights issues or to act as a self-appointed court," Information Minister Ali Abdu said on Saturday.
"As far as Eritrea is concerned, this is ridiculous ... and at a time when we are reading the gruesome reports from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay," he told Reuters, referring to charges of human rights abuses committed in U.S.-run prisons.
The U.S. rights report, released on Wednesday, accused Eritrea of harsh and sometimes lethal treatment of military deserters and draft evaders.
Eritrea and Ethiopia, which fought a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people, have been locked in a dispute over the demarcation of their shared border since an independent commission awarded the border town of Badme to Eritrea in 2002.
Despite an agreement from both sides that they would abide by the commission's ruling, Ethiopia rejected the decision.
The diplomatic stalemate has created military tension along the 1,000-km (600-mile) border. Eritrea -- whose population is only one-twentieth the size of Ethiopia's -- has become one of the most militarised countries in the world.
DEATHS
The U.S. rights report said Eritrea's government "continued to authorise the use of deadly force against anyone resisting or attempting to flee during military searches for deserters and draft evaders, and deaths reportedly occurred during the year".
"Several persons detained for evading national service died after harsh treatment by security forces," the report added.
Beginning in June and continuing until the end of the year, security forces began detaining and arresting parents of individuals who had evaded national service or fled the country, it said.
Before being released, the parents were required to pay a fine and bring their children back, the report added.
The report also cited the case of the so-called G-11, a group of 11 senior politicians arrested in September 2001 after calling for more transparency within the government.
Their whereabouts are still unknown. At least four individuals, associated with the G-11 and arrested in 2002, remain in detention, the U.S. report said.
The government continued to arrest and detain members of non-registered religious groups, some of whom have been detained for than 11 years, the report said.
The dossier also said it had reports of up to several hundred politically motivated detentions during 2005, and many of those detained remained in prison at the end of the year.