http://www.ft.com/cms/s/47296fc2-86e5-11db-9ad5-0000779e2340.html
Annan attacks US anti-terror strategy By Mark Turner in New York Published: December 8 2006 23:02 | Last updated: December 8 2006 23:02 Kofi Annan on Friday attacked the US policy of sending suspected terrorists to secret prisons round the world, saying it undermined any hope of success in the fight against terrorism. "Secret prisons have no place in our struggle against terrorism," he told an audience of human rights experts and activists in New York. "Leading promoters of human rights undermine their own influence when they fail to live up to these principles. We need an anti-terrorism strategy that does not merely pay lip-service to the defence of human rights but is built on it." Terrorism in itself, Mr Annan said, was "an assault on the most basic human rights, starting with the right to life". But states could not fulfil their obligation to protect "by themselves violating human rights in the process". Mr Annan also accused the world's governments of dismal failure in carrying out their promises to stop massive war crimes, in a bleak valedictory appeal for an end to the horror in Sudan's Darfur region. "Sixty years after the liberation of the Nazi death camps, and 30 years after the Cambodian killing fields, the promise of 'never again' is ringing hollow," he told the audience in New York's Lincoln Center. "We must give real meaning to the principle of 'responsibility to protect' -- which means, in essence, that respect for national sovereignty can no longer be used as an excuse for inaction in the face of crimes against humanity," Mr Annan said. "The [Darfur] tragedy has raged for over three years now, and still reports pour in of villages being destroyed by the hundred, and of the brutal treatment of civilians spreading into neighbouring countries. How can an international community which claims to uphold human rights allow this horror to continue?" Mr Annan hit out against "those who value abstract notions of sovereignty more than the lives of real families", and "those who fear that action to stop the slaughter would jeopardise their commercial interests" -- in a clear reference to China's oil trade with Sudan. Mr Annan also appealed for countries to make more of the new Human Rights Council in Geneva, which, he said, "so far has clearly not justified all the hopes that so many of us placed in it". He said he was worried by the council's "disproportionate focus" on violations by Israel. "Not that Israel should be given a free pass. Absolutely not. But the council should give the same attention to grave violations committed by other states as well." Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006 +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
