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Amnesty blasts Russia, EU, U.S. on human rights

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MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti) - A prominent human rights group condemned Wednesday several major countries, including Russia, the EU and the U.S., for a deterioration of human rights there.

In its annual report, Amnesty International (AI) took Russia to task over Chechnya and press freedom, the U.S. for its conduct during the war on terror, and EU members for their double standards with respect to minorities and migrants.

Russia

In Russia, AI targeted the regulation of non-governmental organizations, calling it "legally imprecise" and "allowing arbitrary implementation and disproportionate penalties."

AI also expressed concern over the freedom of the media and said Russian authorities failed to protect journalists.

It cited the murder of Anna Politkovskaya "in all likelihood because of her work as a journalist" and a suspended sentence for Stanislav Dmitrievsky, head of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, for allegedly inciting "race hate" by publishing articles by Chechen separatist leaders.

AI experts also condemned the Russian authorities over the detention of anti-globalization protesters on their journey to St. Petersburg in the run-up to the G8 summit in July, "apparently sometimes on spurious grounds."

In Chechnya, AI said, "extra-judicial executions, enforced disappearances and abductions, arbitrary detention and torture, including in unofficial places of detention, were reported in the government's counter-terrorism operation in the North Caucasus." Meanwhile, "individuals who sought justice in the Russian courts or before the European Court of Human Rights faced intimidation from officials."

"Torture was used in police custody across the country. Safeguards against torture were circumvented by police officers focused on obtaining 'confessions', " AI said.

A former detainee at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, where terrorist suspects are held, was returned to Russian custody, and there are concerns about his health, AI said.

Sexual minority rights also remained in the focus of AI concern as "a Gay Pride march was banned in May" in Moscow. Counter-demonstrators, AI said, "hurled homophobic abuse and attacked some individual protesters. The police reportedly failed to provide protection. A number of LGBT activists and journalists were injured."

Other countries, including new EU members such as Poland and Latvia, were also condemned for "fostering a climate of intolerance against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities."

"The [Russian] authorities failed to provide protection or to investigate effectively many racially motivated attacks, including murders," AI said, stressing a rise in the rate of reported hate crime in Russia.

U.S.

The United States was primarily held liable for the methods used in President George W. Bush's war on terror.

"Thousands of detainees continued to be held in US custody without charge or trial in Iraq, Afghanistan and the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay," AI said, and raised particular concerns about the practice of "extraordinary renditions" of terrorist suspects by the U.S. to states practicing torture, bypassing any transparent criminal procedures.

Europe

Europe's two main transgressions, which have harmed its credibility as the beacon of human rights, were described as the poor handling of low-cost laborers from new EU members and from outside the bloc, and complicity in U.S. "extraordinary renditions" by many EU governments, including the U.K., Germany, and Sweden.

"Many European governments had adopted a "see no evil, hear no evil" approach when it came to rendition flights using their territory," AI said.

Members of the Russian-speaking minorities in Estonia and Latvia, AI said, "faced limited access to the labor market owing to restrictive linguistic and minority rights."

"Discriminatory practices, including barriers to employment, continued towards [Estonia's] linguistic minority, affecting some 430,000 people, approximately 30 per cent of the population."

"More than 400,000 people continued to live in Latvia without citizenship," AI said.

"An institutional minimalist approach to human rights within the EU's borders," AI said, "added to the erosion of [the Union's] credibility domestically and globally on human rights issues."

Reactions in Russia

The AI report met with mixed reactions among Russian officials and civil activists engaged in human rights activities.

Ella Pamfilova, head of the presidential human rights advisory council, said the AI report deserved respect and due consideration.

"Amnesty International is an independent, authoritative, and professional organization," she said.

"They do not play geopolitical games, so I trust their judgment," Pamfilova said. "Indeed, we face massive [human rights] problems."

But Valery Tishkov, chairman of tolerance and freedom of conscience commission at the Public Chamber, a body ensuring public debate on legislation, said AI tended to overlook progress and focused on "issues that have largely become history."

"To fail to notice that Chechnya - where there are no explosions, terrorist attacks, or murders - has 450 working schools, 10 colleges, an elected government, several dozen [political] parties and over a hundred NGOs, while speaking only of human rights abuses, means that someone wants nothing good for this region," Tishkov said.

"It looks like Amnesty International just does not want to see the conflict in Chechnya come to an end, but wants to see continued fighting there," he said.

AI was founded in the U.K. in 1961 and claims to have over 2.2 million active members and supporters 150 countries.

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