U.S. Accused of Overlooking Rights Violations

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is giving lip service to promoting democracy by endorsing suspect elections in Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan while allowing human rights violations in those countries to go unchecked, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

In a scathing report, the organization blamed the United States and Europe for undermining human rights around the world by allowing autocrats to pretend they are democratic simply by holding rigged elections.

The group also said Russia and Jordan were pretending that using the word democracy is enough to claim real democratic credentials, and added that “even China has gotten into the game” as President Hu Jintao of China has called for more democracy within the Communist Party. “Yet that has not stopped him from barring independent political parties, blocking legal efforts to uphold basic rights, and shutting down countless civil society organizations, media outlets and Websites,” the group’s executive director, Kenneth Roth, wrote in the report’s introduction.

In an interview, Mr. Roth blamed much of this on the Bush administration’s touting of democracy while still accepting the results of dubious elections. “The Bush administration has chosen democracy instead of human rights,” Mr. Roth said. “They’ve abandoned democratic standards and reduced its requirements to just holding an election.”

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Bush is cool with dubious elections? Who knew?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/world/31cnd-rights.html?hp