Saturday, July 10, 2010

Human rights, Australia's struggles

This week the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) issued their latest [PDF format warning] "Human Rights Report" covering Iraq and refuting the claims of 'success,' 'turned corner' and other waves of Operation Happy Talk. Michael Jansen (Irish Times) reports:

The report focuses on the rising rate of attacks on mosques and churches, ethnic groups, officials, journalists and public figures. Violence against women, including honour killings, is prevalent across Iraq. Perpetrators are not held accountable for their crimes.
According to the Iraqi government, at least 4,068 civilians were killed and 15,935 wounded in 2009. While the number of fatalities fell slightly in the second half of the year, the number of those injured rose to 9,747, increasing by more than one-third over the 6,188 wounded in the first half.

For more on the report, you can see Thursday's snapshot. Staying with reports, Lin Zhi (Xinhua) covers reports coming out of Australia:



Australian troops have revealed the intense pressure of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Australia's media reported on Saturday.
The troops have criticized the Defense organization and their allied counterparts as the troops detailed the hidden trauma of life on the front line.
According to The Australian, in descriptions of overworked pilots addicted to Stilnox and other prescription drugs, an underground trade in illicit substances and sex, complaints about a lack of support, poor leadership and the constant fear of death, troops have provided a raw and disturbing account of Australia's involvement in the Middle East.


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We'll close with this from Kenneth J. Theisen's "Degradation, Corruption Fester in Afghanistan under U.S. Occupation " (World Can't Wait):

The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001. It installed a puppet government headed by its handpicked puppet, Hamid Karzai. Since then that government has been a partner in the U.S war of terror on the Afghan people.
One aspect of that war and the way it oppress the population of Afghanistan is the rampant corruption of the Karzai regime. A new survey by Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA), an anti-corruption watchdog, indicates the extent of that corruption has worsened.
The survey found pervasive corruption in the police, justice, health and education sectors. And despite claims of progress in fighting corruption by the U.S. and the Afghan puppet regimes, corruption has actually gotten worse. The survey results show that bribery has doubled since 2007 and puts the financial burden on the Afghan Gross Domestic Product at close to one billion U.S. dollars per year.



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