[1543] in peace2
Front Page LA Times: Military Aid and Rights Abuse
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Tue Mar 5 10:13:45 2002
Date: 5 Mar 2002 07:11:44 -0800
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FRONT PAGE Los Angeles Times (from the Hard Copy, different from online Titles)
1. U.S. Offers Military Aid to Allies
War Effort: The Bush administration plans to provide advisors, weapons and training to nations on the terror conflict's front lines.
2. Rights Abuse Report Cites U.S. 'Allies'
f:interesting they should be on the same page...
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U.S. Boosting Allies' Military Aid
Strategy: The Bush administration offers training and arms in expectation of later help.
By ESTHER SCHRADER, TIMES STAFF WRITER
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-000016517mar05.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dworld%2Dmanual
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is preparing to provide U.S. military advisors, weapons and special training to governments in Central Asia, the Mideast and Africa over the next six months as part of an expanded effort to mount proxy fights against terrorists in more than half a dozen countries, administration officials say.
The administration has sought a 27% funding increase for a federal program designed to bolster militaries in other countries. Money, materiel and U.S. military trainers would go to Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Jordan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, a senior Defense Department official said.
The United States has traditionally conducted training exercises with friendly militaries and has helped them buy military equipment and services. But the expanded effort is designed to allow the U.S. to more directly use other nations' armed forces to strike at terrorists who threaten American interests. The new push comes despite years of controversy over misuse of U.S. training and materiel by foreign militaries. Now, however, the expanded ties are seen as essential to the administration's plan to conduct proxy fights against terrorist cells in many places at once.
"All these programs were predicated on the idea that if we get together, U.S. values will be transferred and U.S. interests will be served. Right now, our interest is in curbing terrorism," said D. B. Des Roches, a spokesman for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
While the Pentagon says it will not disclose publicly where the war on terrorism will take U.S. resources next, military officials said the Pentagon is sending a surplus patrol boat and rifles to the Philippines and spare helicopter parts to Pakistan. It has sent military trainers to Djibouti, Ethiopia and Oman and has trained Georgian pilots at U.S. military flight schools.
"We will continue to train and equip countries that face terrorist threats. We will establish or, in some cases, reestablish military-to-military contacts with countries that face terrorist threats," Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday. "The power and reach of weapons today are too great and too lethal to do otherwise."
Senior defense officials say the preparations are a central part of the next phase in the war on terrorism, in which the United States hopes to be able to wage military operations against its enemies around the world without using U.S. troops. Administration officials believe that by sending military equipment to countries that have long sought such aid, then training their militaries, Washington will build relationships strong enough that U.S. leaders can later ask those nations to use what they have learned on the United States' behalf.
"This is more of a long-term investment than an immediate fix," said one senior military official. "It's an attempt to get more exposure to democracy for front-line states in the war against terrorism, and to equip them to fight on their turf. It's part of the realization that there are an awful lot of nasty things out there that could touch us more directly than we ever thought they could in the past."
The military aid is being channeled through three Cold War era programs. Two of the programs--Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, which awards credits, loans and grants to other militaries to buy military equipment; and International Military Education and Training, or IMET, which provides education at home and in the United States to officers of foreign militaries--are run by the State Department and implemented by the Pentagon. A third program, which awards excess defense equipment to friendly countries, is run by the Pentagon.
The programs have been used in the past primarily for funding military aid to Israel, Egypt, Jordan and countries in Latin America. But they were also used in 2001 to train and educate more than 9,000 foreign military personnel and to equip the 100 countries those personnel came from.
In its 2003 budget request to Congress, the State Department is asking for an increase of 27% over this year's budget for FMF and 13% for IMET.
The increases reflect "new conditions" after Sept. 11, a State Department official said. "Certainly we want to use [the programs] to complement our objectives in the war on terrorism."
Military officials say the relationships the Pentagon has been cultivating for almost a decade with the militaries of Central Asian countries have already paid dividends. The U.S. has been making heavy use of air bases in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to support the war in Afghanistan. And the Air Force is building an air base in Kyrgyzstan it plans to use for years.
"There's no guarantee this will buy you anything in the long term, but if you're coming into these places starting from ground zero, the chances that you will get anything from them are near zero," said Jay Cope, a retired Army colonel and a senior research fellow at the National Defense University.
Critics say that strengthening militaries without strengthening government institutions in unstable parts of the globe could create more problems than it solves.
"What do we actually buy when we train these militaries? Presumably they can shoot better and train better, but are they more likely to be our friends? We don't actually know," said Deborah Avant, an assistant professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University.
"We're partly going on hope here," Avant said. "You might be shooting yourself in the foot, particularly when you're talking about getting terrorist threats under control."
Pentagon officials said that while the programs are not perfect, they are gambling that they can be used effectively to leverage U.S. interests in the war on terrorism.
"We can't change where these people come from and the culture of their particular institution," a senior military official said. "We can expose them to a lot, but that doesn't necessarily mean that, when they go back home and they become part of that particular institution, they are going to respond as expected."
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to www.lats.com/rights.
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In Rights Report, U.S. Criticizes Nations Vital to War on Terror
Policy: Annual study cites violations of freedoms in countries such as Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
By ROBIN WRIGHT, TIMES STAFF WRITER
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-000016530mar05.story
WASHINGTON -- A number of countries vital to the U.S. war on terrorism come under harsh criticism for severe violations of basic freedoms in the annual U.S. human rights report, released Monday by the State Department.
The countries include Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkey, China and even Israel.
The violations include torture in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Russia; extrajudicial killings in Pakistan; and prolonged detentions without trial in Uzbekistan on the basis of evidence planted by security forces. The survey of nearly 190 countries also charges that nations such as China and Uzbekistan have used the war on terrorism as cover for crackdowns on dissidents demanding freedoms and reform.
The report underscores the basic dilemma faced by the Bush administration as it struggles to hold together a coalition to combat terrorism while promoting--and staying true to--its own values.
Before unveiling the report, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the United States "will not relax" its commitment to advancing the cause of democracy, because terrorism cannot thrive in places where fundamental freedoms are available.
"Freedom fights terrorism, instability and conflict," Powell said at a news conference.
Yet the 6,000-page survey immediately triggered criticism of the administration from international human rights groups and members of Congress. One of the foremost complaints was that there is a growing gap between the United States' rhetoric and its practices.
"The administration is candid and accurate in pointing out the problems, but it's still doing virtually nothing to address them," said Thomas Malinowski, advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, an international monitoring group.
"Its argument that human rights still matters is not reflected in the alliance that the United States is forging, the money it's spending or the military bases it's building overseas," Malinowski said.
Rep. Tom Lantos of San Mateo, Calif., the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee and co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, called on the administration to "redouble" efforts to promote democracy in nations such as Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and China that are pivotal in the war against terrorism but cited in the report for major rights abuses.
"The war against terrorism is the ultimate struggle for human rights," he said.
Human rights groups also charged that the administration is going soft on abuses in countries that are key allies in the anti-terrorism campaign. The survey is striking for the way it recasts abuses in the context of the war, thereby easing pressure on governments to act, the groups said.
"The characterization of human rights violations has changed this year," said Alex Arriaga, Amnesty International's director of government relations in Washington. "There's greater reporting on the countries that the administration believes are involved in terrorism, while there's some soft-pedaling on U.S. allies."
In the past, for example, the survey has reported on Pakistan's practice of holding families hostage in order to pressure suspected extremists into turning themselves in, she said. Although the practice continues, the report this year did not mention it.
The report's language has also changed. Rebels in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya were described in last year's report as "separatists," while this year they are "fighters." Last year, Uzbek security forces were cited for arbitrary arrests and detentions of "pious Muslims" on false charges; this year they are linked to arrests of Muslims "suspected of extremist sympathies" on false charges, according to Sharon Burke, advocacy director of Amnesty International.
As for the Mideast, the report says that in response to about 2,000 terrorist attacks, Israel has detained Palestinians without charges, coerced confessions and engaged in harassment and abuse at checkpoints.
The report describes Israel's record in the occupied territories as poor. Israel is also cited for its treatment of Arab citizens in its own territory.
But Amnesty officials said the report is soft on Israel compared with past years.
The report indicates that all Israeli actions against the Palestinians were the result of provocations, and it does not cite Israel for acts such as Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to Jerusalem's Temple Mount in September 2000, several months before he was elected prime minister. The visit enraged Muslims and immediately preceded the outbreak of the current intifada.
The document this year "goes out of its way to justify" Israeli actions, Burke said.
The Palestinians, the report says, have "attacked Israelis, including settlers, other civilians and soldiers, on a daily basis in the occupied territories and Israel proper."
The survey, mandated by Congress, also says:
* Pakistani police have engaged in chronic abuses, including rape and murder, for which no officer has yet been convicted.
* Saudi Arabia has employed torture, forced confessions, arbitrary arrests, trial without legal counsel and widespread intimidation of both its own citizens and foreigners. Riyadh has also failed to issue a report on its findings in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which killed 19 U.S. troops.
* In Uzbekistan, security forces have tortured, beaten and harassed dissidents and planted narcotics, weapons and banned literature on Muslims suspected of having extremist sympathies.
* In dealing with Chechnya, Russia has shown "little respect" for basic human rights. Credible reports also claim that both the government and rebels have engaged in extrajudicial killings.
* China has used the U.S.-led war on terrorism to cover up its crackdown on Uighur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang. Beijing has also suppressed "any person, group, whether religious, political or social," viewed as a threat to government power. Practices include torture and extrajudicial killings.
* Turkey, which has problems with its Kurdish population, has engaged in "widespread" torture and beatings of prisoners.
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to www.lats.com/rights.
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