•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

London. Indonesia is among a number of G-20 countries that have been criticized by Amnesty International for undermining international justice efforts.

The human rights group accused the United States, Russia and China on Thursday of ignoring human rights violations by allies and failing to open their own records to scrutiny in an annual survey meant to pressure governments to act more compassionately.

The took the US to task for President Barack Obama’s failure — despite promises — to close its prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and criticized Russia and China for what it described as blocking international scrutiny of the Sri Lankan government’s conduct during its bloody conflict with insurgents.

Amnesty criticized all three nations, and several other Group of 20 countries, for refusing to participate in the International Criminal Court, which is intended to prosecute war criminals.

“China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey and the USA have stood aside from — if not deliberately undermined — international justice efforts,’’ interim Secretary-General Claudio Cordone told The Associated Press.

Nations have yet to issue formal responses to the report, though several have previously stressed the principle of noninterference in other countries’ internal affairs.

Amnesty’s annual roundup of global human rights abuses urged members of the G-20 — a collection of major industrial countries and fast-growing developing countries — to set an example to the international community by signing up to the International Criminal Court.

The United States and others have refused to ratify the court’s founding treaty partly because they fear the court could become a forum for politically motivated prosecutions of troops in unpopular wars like Iraq.

In the US, Amnesty said Obama’s administration has produced a mixed picture on human rights. Although some progress has been made toward closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, there was little sign that anyone would be held accountable for alleged torture there, Cordone said.


Associated Press