So has Amnesty International denounced Iraq or just the U.S.?

[AndrewR]

Just curious because I've only heard of their allegations against the United States, which is typical. I mean Iraq only kills, beats, rapes, and gasses its own people, but the U.S. is font of all evil in the world, since every war we fight is over natural resources (seeing as how we have none of our own and no access to any others).

 

[Robor]

Well it's okay for Saddam and his crew to *deliberately* rape, torture, and murder the men, women, and children of Iraq but if the US or UK miss a target and *accidentally* kill an Iraqi citizen it's newsworthy.

It's cliche to be anti-war...

 

[da loser]

the interweb is your friend anyway i think they state it best themselves about your observation. amnesty website
Much of the example of past practice focuses on US or UK armed forces. This should not be taken to imply that the actions of Iraqi forces cause less concern ? on the contrary. The greater attention to US and UK forces reflects the fact that both have shown, as far as AI is aware, more willingness to respect IHL commitments and to engage in discussing their legal position.

So pretty much, they realize Saddam doesn't care, big surprise, and they have an audience within the US, big surprise. So one must conclude that amnesty international is pretty useless if they don't concentrate on major abuses but rather minor abuses in willing governments. Make no mistake, they condemn many of saddam's actions, its just it falls on deaf ears...

i particularly like their "take action" letters, it goes to all nations in the conflict. All the nations e-mail addresses and contact info except Iraq: Letters addressed to President Saddam Hussein should be sent directly to the Iraqi embassy in your country. If there is no Iraqi embassy in your country then you can send appeals to your country's Interests Section for Iraq. If so, please enclose a covering letter explaining your aims, asking them for assistance in obtaining a response, and requesting that your letter be forwarded to government officials in Baghdad.

 

[Tab]

Heh, the Military does have problems agreed. The rape scandels and things that go on in the states are freaky. With the recent public pressure I doubt nothing will happen.

 

[AndrewR]

So one must conclude that amnesty international is pretty useless if they don't concentrate on major abuses but rather minor abuses in willing governments.

Bingo -- just wanted to reconfirm.

 

[Nitemare]

Amnesty doesn't care what you do to your own people provided you are a third world country

 

[Tom]

"Bingo -- just wanted to reconfirm."

I don't agree with your assesment of the value of Amnesty International. When they exercise their freedom of speech rights in a country like the USA, and then citizens who agree with them or disagree with them take action such as contacting their congressperson or in elections, then they can have an effect on the actual lives of people in the USA and even in other countries through influencing decisions about foreign aid,etc.

 

[LocutusX]

Originally posted by: AndrewR
So one must conclude that amnesty international is pretty useless if they don't concentrate on major abuses but rather minor abuses in willing governments.

Bingo -- just wanted to reconfirm.

Yes... if you are completely oblivious to the historical value of AI and want to oversimplify the issue by patriotically labelling them as "mindless Anti-War peaceniks", then your deduction is right on target.

 

[konichiwa]

Originally posted by: Robor
Well it's okay for Saddam and his crew to *deliberately* rape, torture, and murder the men, women, and children of Iraq but if the US or UK miss a target and *accidentally* kill an Iraqi citizen it's newsworthy.

It's cliche to be anti-war...

Wrong. Amnesty International deplores Iraq for their disgressions just as much, if not more, than the US. The publicity of one and not the other is only a sign of how sensationalist most news outlets are.

 

[konichiwa]

Originally posted by: AndrewR
So one must conclude that amnesty international is pretty useless if they don't concentrate on major abuses but rather minor abuses in willing governments.

Bingo -- just wanted to reconfirm.

Again, wrong wrong wrong. Check out amnesty.org website before you spout off about it. Just because you don't find articles regarding Iraq on CNN.com does not mean that Amnesty supports them.

 

[konichiwa]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Amnesty doesn't care what you do to your own people provided you are a third world country

See above. Bunch of ignoramuses...

 

[dpm]

Some people truly only hear from the news what they want to hear, don't they?

Remember the furor in the press about the British government report on Iraq that the Powell used as one of the planks of his presentation to the UN about why Saddam had to be deposed? Well, almost all of the information about Saddams human rights violations was lifted straight from Amnesty's numerous reports on Iraq. Amnesty complained loudly that for years they'd been trying to get people to pay attention to the human rights abuses in Iraq, but until the US and the UK wanted to invade, nobody cared, and they couldn't get major news orgs to report it.

Seriously, I'm not like an expert on Amnesty or anything, but even I've heard their reports and their efforts to draw attention to torture etc going on in Iraq, Burma, China etc etc. But its only when they criticise the US that the big news companies pay attention to them, and then people think they don't care about the little countries.