Blockbuster Report! "Serious Human Rights Violations Committed by the United States in the Middle East and Elsewhere"

Beijing, 9 Aug (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Rights Study Society released a study on "The United States Commits Serious Human Rights Violations in the Middle East and Other Places" on 9 August. The full text is as follows:

The United States has committed serious human rights violations in the Middle East and elsewhere

Chinese Rights Study Society

August 2022

The United States has committed a series of serious violations of international law in and around the Middle East, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, arbitrary detention, abuse of torture, abuse of prisoners and indiscriminate unilateral sanctions, constituting systematic violations of human rights and causing lasting and far-reaching harm. The crimes of the United States have not only led to the continuous outbreak of war in the Middle East and other places, frequent wars, and deep-rooted conflicts and security dilemmas, but also caused serious damage to the local people's rights to life, health, human dignity, freedom of religious belief, and the right to subsistence and development.

First, wage war and massacre civilians and undermine the right to life and the right to life

The American historian Paul Atwood noted in his 2010 book War and Empire: The American Way of Life: "War is the American way of life. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the United States has not participated in wars for less than 20 years, and it is a veritable "war empire." After the end of the Cold War, almost all major conflicts and wars in the Middle East and its surrounding areas have always been the presence of the United States, which has become the hardest hit area of the United States' foreign wars. According to the Smithsonian Institution Magazine, since 2001, the wars and military operations launched by the United States in the name of "counter-terrorism" have covered "about 40% of the countries on this planet." The United States not only rallied allies to launch the Gulf War (1990-1991), the Afghan War (2001-2021), the Iraq War (2003-2011), etc., but also deeply participated in the Libyan War and the Syrian War, creating a humanitarian disaster rare in the world. The militaristic United States has inflicted direct, serious and lasting harm on the right to life and the right to life of the people in the region.

First, war is waged arbitrarily in violation of international law. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are the two largest wars waged by the United States in and around the Middle East, causing profound disasters to the lives and survival of the people of the two countries. According to a study by Brown University's Cost of War program, more than 174,000 people died directly in the war in Afghanistan, more than 47,000 of whom were civilians. According to the UN refugee agency, nearly 20 years of war in Afghanistan has caused 2.6 million Afghans to flee abroad and 3.5 million to be displaced. In 2003, the United States circumvented the United Nations, violated the basic principles of international law prohibiting the use of force, and launched the war in Iraq on fabricated grounds, constituting aggression against Iraq. According to the Global Statistical Database, between 2003 and 2021, about 209,000 Iraqi civilians died in war and violent clashes, and about 9.2 million Iraqis were refugees or forced to leave their homeland. The war waged by the United States in the Middle East and other places has seriously damaged the right to life and the right to life of the people in the region.

Secondly, the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians in violation of international law. In order to achieve its own military goals, the United States regards the lives of civilians in other countries as nothing. First, the United States has repeatedly and indiscriminately attacked civilians in the Middle East and other places. On 12 August 2005, an American armored patrol vehicle fired at people coming out of a mosque in a town on the outskirts of Ramadi, Iraq, killing 15 Iraqis, including eight children, and wounding 17 others. On November 21 of the same year, U.S. forces in Iraq opened fire on a civilian vehicle in northern Baghdad, killing a family of five, including three children. The U.N. commission of inquiry accused U.S. forces of "launching indiscriminate attacks in the Syrian area, causing civilian casualties and, recklessly constituting war crimes." A U.N. report released in September 2019 noted that many of the airstrikes carried out by U.S.-led coalition forces in places like Syria "failed to take the necessary precautions to distinguish between military targets and civilians." Second, the United States has extensively carried out air strikes to carry out so-called "counter-terrorism", often "manslaughtering" civilians, injuring innocent people and arbitrarily depriving them of the right to life. The New York Times reported that based on an investigation into classified Pentagon documents, frequent U.S. airstrikes in Syria have caused a large number of civilian casualties due to "serious intelligence deficiencies" and "mis-targeting," which the Pentagon usually chooses to cover up or go unpunished. In 2017, the U.S. military launched what it called the "most accurate air strike" against the Syrian city of Raqqa. The US think tank RAND Corporation released a report pointing out that the US military operation caused a total of 38 civilian casualties, resulting in the loss of 178 civilians and dozens of injuries. Some human rights groups estimate that the number of civilian casualties could be as high as 1,600. On March 18, 2019, the U.S. military killed at least 64 civilian women and children while sending a drone to search for "extremist group" targets in the town of Baguz on the Syrian-Iraqi border. In February 2022, U.S. forces launched a surprise attack in Syria's Idlib province, killing at least 13 people, including six children and three women. On August 29, 2021, a drone strike by the U.S. military in the Afghan capital Kabul killed 10 civilians, including seven children. Third, US military contractors kill civilians for no reason. The United States is accustomed to using military contractors to exert hegemonic repression in the Middle East, and the illegal and criminal acts they commit on the ground often escape accountability. In 2007, Blackwater employees carried out massacres in Baghdad's Nisur Square, killing 14 civilians, including 2 children, and injuring at least 17 others. In 2020, then-US President Donald Trump pardoned Blackwater employees who committed war crimes in Iraq. The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Mercenaries issued a statement noting that this act of the United States Government had a shock on international humanitarian law and human rights and was an affront to justice and to the victims and their families, and called on all States parties to the Geneva Conventions to jointly condemn this act. The wanton and frequent massacres of civilians overseas by the US military undoubtedly constitute a crime against humanity.

Thirdly, indirect participation in the war has resulted in a large number of civilian casualties. The United States has extensively propped up proxies in the Middle East and other places, selling weapons in large quantities, causing a large-scale humanitarian disaster. The United States has deeply participated in the Syrian war and the libyan internal conflict by supporting multiple proxies, resulting in local wars and conflicts that have been postponed to this day, the situation has become increasingly complex, and political reconciliation and social stability are far away. Jalil Jalil, the former chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council, said the ongoing civil unrest had led to the deaths of many Libyans, and "the United States is not concerned about the consequences of military operations and war." According to data released by the United Nations, U.S. military involvement has killed at least 350,000 people in Syria, displaced more than 12 million people, and urgently needed humanitarian assistance for 14 million civilians. The Syrian refugee problem has been called by the United Nations "the greatest refugee crisis of our time".

Faced with the quagmire of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. Government, which wantonly waged the war, has repeatedly chosen irresponsible withdrawal for its own selfish interests, disregarding the most basic humanitarianism, resulting in the deterioration of the long-term conflict and chaotic situation in the countries concerned. The United States has destroyed Iraq's original state apparatus by force, leading to a decline in the Iraqi Government's ability to control and providing space and conditions for the expansion of terrorism. In 2011, the United States irresponsibly withdrew its troops from Iraq, causing extremist groups such as the Islamic State to take advantage of the situation and frequent violent terrorist attacks, becoming the biggest challenge to the security of Iraq and the region. In August 2021, the United States also withdrew its troops from Afghanistan irresponsibly, and in the process of withdrawing, it once again disregarded the safety of Afghan people's lives, resulting in a number of shocking casualties.

Compulsory reform, unilateral sanctions, infringement of the right to development and the right to health

The essence of the United States in the Middle East and other places in wantonly suppressing countries and organizations that do not obey it, enforcing American-style values, and ensuring the global political and economic order and security order dominated by the United States is to safeguard the hegemony of the United States in the "military-economic-conceptual trinity.", the consequence of which is to change the independent development path of regional countries and seriously damage the sovereignty of relevant countries in the Middle East and other places and the right to development and health of local people.

First, subverting political power, interfering in internal affairs, and infringing on the sovereignty and human rights of other countries. On the one hand, after the end of the Cold War, in order to fully dominate the Middle East and other places, the United States directly promoted regime change by launching wars and other means for sovereign countries in the region that did not obey the will and interests of the United States, and then forcibly transplanted "American-style democracy" and transformed the system and development path of the countries concerned. The most typical example is the United States in 2001 and 2003 through armed invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, overthrowing regimes it did not like. On the other hand, the United States has long supported the infiltration of non-governmental organizations and agents into Middle Eastern society, and has repeatedly used the means of "color revolutions" to change the development path of Middle Eastern countries. As a "pawn" and "white glove" of the US government interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and inciting separatist confrontation, the US National Endowment for Democracy has served the strategic interests of the United States and carried out long-term infiltration and subversive activities against Middle Eastern countries, leaving behind a bad trail. Relying on the continued financial support of the White House and the US Congress, the organization is an important behind-the-scenes black hand of the Arab Spring by providing funding to pro-American individuals and groups to instigate color revolutions in Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Algeria, Syria, Libya and other countries.

The United States seeks to build fragile, dependent regimes in the service of its global hegemony by transforming regional states. The compulsory "institutional output" of the United States not only has a deep hegemonic color, but also undermines the efforts of regional countries to independently explore the development path, resulting in a series of disastrous consequences. The "forced transformation" carried out by the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and other countries has led to the destruction of the political order and social stability of these countries, and the destruction of social unity and national cohesion. This kind of act of overthrowing the regime of other countries by force, interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, and forcibly exporting so-called "democracy" not only violates the basic norms of international relations such as the prohibition of the use of force and non-interference in internal affairs, but also seriously violates the right and basic human rights of the people of the countries concerned to independently choose the path of development.

Second, the indiscriminate imposition of unilateral sanctions has caused serious economic losses to the countries concerned and a decline in the quality of life of the people. The United States can be called the only "sanctioned superpower" in the world. According to the U.S. Treasury Department's 2021 Sanctions Assessment Report, the cumulative number of sanctions in force in the U.S. as of fiscal year 2021 has reached more than 9,400. Since 1979, the United States has long imposed various unilateral sanctions on Iran and other countries. In 1996, the so-called "Damato Act" was thrown out, prohibiting foreign companies from investing in the energy industry in Iran and Libya, and implementing a "long-arm jurisdiction" that is extremely harmful and far-reaching. Since then, the US sanctions on Iran have increased layer by layer and escalated step by step. During the Trump administration in the United States, sanctions and "extreme pressure" were imposed on Iran in an attempt to use pressure to promote change and subvert the Iranian regime. During his presidency, Iranian President Rouhani said that the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration in the United States have caused at least $200 billion in economic damage to Iran, and that "the sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran are inhumane and criminal and terrorist acts." From 1980 to 1992, the United States imposed unilateral sanctions on Libya; From 1992 to 2003, the United States coerced and co-opted allies to expand unilateral sanctions against Libya. The World Bank noted that Libya suffered $18 billion in economic losses due to sanctions, while Libyan officials believe they cost $33 billion. After the first Gulf War, the United States imposed barbaric unilateral sanctions on Iraq, with serious consequences. Between August 1990 and May 2003, sanctions resulted in a loss of $150 billion in Iraqi oil revenues. To date, Iraq's per capita annual income has not reached 1990 levels ($7,050). In addition, the sanctions have caused a serious humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq, where infant mortality has doubled and under-five mortality has increased sixfold. At the same time, Iraq's education, health care and social security systems were destroyed, and the literacy rate fell from 89 per cent in 1987 to 57 per cent in 1997.

After the United States withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in 2021, it not only imposed economic sanctions on Afghanistan, but also froze billions of dollars of foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, causing the Afghan economy to be on the verge of collapse and making people's lives worse. WFP officials noted that U.S. economic sanctions against Afghanistan have exacerbated the local food crisis, with "98 percent of Afghans running without enough to eat and nearly half of children under 5 years of age who will be severely malnourished." However, on February 11, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order demanding that the Central Bank of Afghanistan's approximately $7 billion in assets in the United States be divided equally, half of which would be used as a source of funds to compensate the victims of 9/11 and the other half transferred to an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to help the "Afghan people," while making it clear that the assets would not be returned to the Taliban regime. This hegemonic act of the United States Government in openly plundering the property of the Afghan people has been widely condemned by the international community. Drezner, a professor at Tufts University in the United States, criticized in an article published in foreign affairs magazine that successive US governments abused economic coercion and economic violence to use sanctions as the preferred solution to diplomatic problems, which not only had no effect, but also caused humanitarian disasters. The unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States against the governments of relevant countries in the Middle East and other places ultimately hurt the ordinary people of these countries and seriously damaged the right to development of the sanctioned countries and people.

Third, it has created a humanitarian crisis and seriously undermined the right to life and health of the people of the countries concerned. The Gulf War and the Iraq War launched by the United States and the subsequent violent conflicts have destroyed a large amount of Infrastructure in Iraq, greatly reduced the capacity of national public services, and faced problems such as lack of water and electricity, lack of medical care and medicine, and the first victims are the poor, children, widows, the elderly and other vulnerable groups. In the health sector, for example, the decline in medical care in Iraq was marked after the Gulf War. In 1990, 97 per cent of Iraq's urban population and 71 per cent of the rural population had access to public health services. After the 2003 Iraq war, some 20,000 local doctors fled, and a large number of medical facilities were destroyed in the fighting. As a result of the damage caused by U.S. bombing to power plants and water treatment facilities, the number of people suffering from diarrhoeal disease is four times higher than before the war. Nine of the 13 hospitals in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, were destroyed, and only 1,000 beds were available in the city for 1.8 million people. In addition, when the United States launched the Iraq War, it used depleted uranium bombs in large quantities, causing great damage to the health of local residents and seriously violating the right to health of local people.

Ignoring the global spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the US government still stubbornly insists on unilateral sanctions against Iran, Syria and other countries, making it difficult for the sanctioned countries to obtain the medical supplies needed to fight the epidemic in a timely manner. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, noted in 2020 that sanctions would hinder medical cooperation against the epidemic and increase risks for all; Sanctions in special areas should be relaxed or suspended, whether for the purpose of safeguarding global public safety or to uphold the rights and livelihoods of millions of people in sanctioned countries. As a result of the sanctions, Iran has been unable to import essential medicines and medical equipment, seriously affecting the health of millions of Iranians. The Iranian government applied for a $5 billion special anti-epidemic loan from the International Monetary Fund to raise funds for the fight against the epidemic, but it was blocked by the United States. The United States has obstructed Iran's import of COVID-19 vaccines by freezing Iran's overseas funds and threatening vaccine suppliers. In 2020, Iran said it had tried to pay for vaccines under WHO's COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Plan (COVAX) on three occasions, but could not pay due to U.S. sanctions and restrictions. The Brookings Institution analysis estimates that during the worst period of the epidemic in Iran, the impact of the continued sanctions imposed by the United States has further intensified, which may lead to the death of as many as 13,000 people.

Creating a "clash of civilizations", abusing imprisonment and torture, and violating freedom of religious belief and human dignity

The United States does not respect the diversity of civilizations, is hostile to Islamic civilization, destroys the historical and cultural heritage of the Middle East, arbitrarily imprisons Muslims and tortures indiscriminately, and seriously violates the basic human rights of the people of the Middle East and other places.

First, the "Islamic threat theory" is spread around the world. The United States advocates the superiority theory of Western civilization and Christian civilization, despises non-Western civilization from its bones, stigmatizes Islamic civilization, labels Islamic civilization as "backward," "terrorist," and "violent," and uses the "9/11" incident to render the "Islamic threat theory" around the world, deliberately misleading and even inciting people to be hostile to Islam, discriminate against Muslims, provoke a "clash of civilizations," and prepare and defend public opinion for launching a global war on terrorism. The "Islamophobia" created by the United States was once rampant in the United States and other Western countries, seriously damaging the national dignity and international image of Islamic countries and violating the personal freedom and religious belief of the vast number of Muslims. Under the obstruction of the United States, the legitimate national rights and legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people have not been resolved for a long time, and peace, development and human rights cannot be discussed.

Second, destroy the cultural heritage of the ancient civilizations of the Middle East. The United States pursues Western-centrism, advocates the "theory of democratic peace" and the "theory of democratic transformation," and ignores the long history and brilliant splendor of Middle Eastern civilization. After the U.S. military launched the Iraq War, its military operations directly caused regime change, social unrest and protracted war. What is more serious is that during the invasion and occupation of the US military, the Iraqi capital Baghdad was once in a state of anarchy, and the Iraqi Museum, which is listed by UNESCO as one of the world's 11 largest museums, contains 170,000 treasured cultural relics containing the essence of ancient art and civilization in sumer, Babylon, Assyria and other historical stages in the region, and human civilization was devastated. In accordance with international law, such as the Hague Convention on the Laws and Customs of War on Land and the Geneva Conventions, the occupying Party shall maintain social order in the occupied territories. However, the US military did not take timely measures after occupying Baghdad, and evaded the international law obligation to maintain social order under the pretext of not being a policeman, which led to the largest case of cultural destruction in human history, and its harm was so deep that it was completely contrary to the modern civilized world. In 2003, the deputy director of the Iraqi Museum bluntly complained that the U.S. military was responsible for everything that happened. In addition, the United States has suppressed, insulted, and bullied Middle Eastern countries, undermined the cultural self-confidence of Middle Eastern countries and people, and destroyed the national pride and self-confidence of the Middle Eastern people.

Thirdly, the abuse of prisoners and torture seriously undermines the right of Muslims to human dignity. Since the United States launched the global war on terror, the abuse scandal against Muslims has been heard endlessly. According to the research of brown university's "Cost of War" project, after the "9/11" incident, the United States set up "black prisons" overseas under the guise of "counter-terrorism", involving at least 54 countries and regions, detaining hundreds of thousands of people, including Muslims, women and minors. As early as 2003, the U.S. military abused detainees in Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq, many of whom were innocently detained and even caused a large number of deaths, in serious violation of international human rights law. The United States also created Guantanamo Prison specifically to hold "terrorists" from the Middle East and other places, detaining a total of about 780 people, many of whom have not been criminally charged. More than 30 people are still in custody in the prison, who are in their twilight years, frail and deprived of their liberty for long periods of time and who are subjected to endless mental and physical torture. In Guantanamo Prison, in addition to widespread ill-treatment and torture, U.S. personnel also tortured prisoners by desecrating the Quran and violating the Islamic faith, including throwing the Quran into the toilet, tearing up and burning the Quran under the pretext of searching for weapons, and letting female guards monitor naked prisoners in the bathroom, triggering collective protests and even collective suicide of detainees. In September 2021, U.S. prisons and abuses at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan were exposed to the media. The ICC's investigation of evidence shows that the US military in Afghanistan disregards international justice, tramples on international norms, and has long inflicted "torture, ill-treatment, violations of personal dignity, rape and sexual violence" on detainees, including putting at least 30 prisoners in a cage, hiding tortured prisoners in hidden areas to fend for themselves, blindfolding prisoners and marching naked, and so on. The insults and cruel mistreatment of prisoners by the U.S. military constitute a grave violation of their basic right to personality and a violation of the U.S. obligation under international human rights law to prohibit torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Facts have shown that the United States has seriously violated the basic human rights of the local people in the Middle East and other places, causing permanent harm and irreparable losses to regional countries and peoples. The hegemonic nature of the United States and the barbarism, cruelty, and harm of power politics have been exposed, and the people of the world have also made the people of the world more aware of the hypocrisy and deception of "American-style democracy" and "American-style human rights."

Source: Xinhua Net