Sudan criticizes US human rights report

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Kozak, meets reporters at the State Department in Washington, Monday, Feb. 28, 2005 to discuss the State Department’s 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.(AP)..

KHARTOUM, Mar 10, 2005 (Xinhua) — Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said on Thursday that the United States lashed out at other countries’ human rights records while turned a blind eye to its own violations.

The minister said in a press statement the US report covered human rights violations in other countries but shunned problems of its own.

He said the report, issued by the US State Department, could have gained a little bit of credibility if it included human rights violations by the US military in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world.

On Sudan’s human rights situation, the minister said, “The government is following up the situation of human rights in the country and we can not say it is satisfactory but we are looking for a better condition benefiting from Sudan’s developing peace process.”

In its annual human rights report, the United States accused the Sudanese government and militias in Darfur of continuing to commit atrocities in the western region, where a two-year conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced over 1 million.

The report said the Sudanese government was reluctant to admit the gravity of the Darfur conflict and did not take effective and swift actions to stop atrocities against women.