Some exerpts from Amnesty International's Annual Report on our 'allies' in the global war on terror who receive both economic and military aid as well as opening trade and having sanctions lifted for helping out in the war on terrorism and Iraq.

You asked for this LittleWing, although I highly doubt you'll look at it all.

Azerbaijan- Human rights defenders were intimidated and their offices attacked. Police reportedly used excessive force to detain villagers involved in peaceful protests.

The pre-election campaign was marked by intimidation of opposition supporters and use of excessive force by the police in breaking up peaceful opposition rallies. Widespread voting irregularities during the election included ballot box stuffing, multiple voting and intimidation of voters and election observers. Scores of election officials who refused to sign flawed election protocols during the count were reportedly threatened and detained. International observers were barred from monitoring the activities of the Central Electoral Commission as they compiled the results at the final count

In February and March pro-government newspapers accused Eldar Zeynalov, head of the non-governmental Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan, of supporting Armenia. In February Ilham Aliyev reportedly said Leyla Yunus, Director of the non-governmental Institute for Peace and Democracy, and others were assisting Armenia and threatening Azerbaijan’s interests by opposing construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. On 22 April progovernment organizations denounced Eldar Zeynalov and Leyla Yunus as “enemies of the people” on state-run television. Between 23 and 25 April a mob broke the windows and locks of the Human Rights Centre, burned a wooden cross bearing the effigy of Eldar Zeynalov, called on him to leave Azerbaijan and shouted death threats. The police did not interfere. On 28 April, when neighbours assaulted his sister-in-law and father-in-law, the police reportedly refused to respond to a call for protection. Also on 28 April, 40 Yeni Azerbaijan supporters outside the Institute of Peace and Democracy called for Leyla Yunus to leave the country.

Bahrain - several journalists were prosecuted in connection with articles published. Mansur al-Jamri and Hussain Khalaf, respectively the editor and a journalist of the daily newspaper al-Wasat, appeared in court in June for publishing an article in March about the release of three men arrested on suspicion of planning “terrorist” attacks (see above). The authorities said the article violated the press law and “state security”. At the request of the lawyers the case was postponed until 2004. A new Press and Publications Law was issued by royal decree in October. Article 68 provides for up to five years’ imprisonment for publishing articles that insult the state’s religion, criticize the King or incite to overthrow or change the government. There were concerns that the law was restrictive and violated international standards on freedom of expression

Colombia - Women were victims of extrajudicial executions, arbitrary and deliberate killings, and “disappearances”. They were often targeted because of their role as activists and leaders campaigning for human rights, peace or socio-economic alternatives or because they were members of communities in conflict zones. Sexual violence against women, including rape and genital mutilation, was also used as a weapon of war to generate fear by all parties to the conflict.

Between 1 and 7 May, soldiers of the XVIII Brigade, wearing AUC armbands, reportedly entered Julieros, Velasqueros, Roqueros, Genareros and Parreros, hamlets of the indigenous reserve of Betoyes, municipality of Tame, Arauca department. In Parreros, a pregnant 16-year-old girl, Omaira Fernández, was allegedly raped and killed. Her stomach was reportedly cut open and the foetus pulled out before her body was placed in a bag, which was then thrown into the River Cravo.

On 6 October, the US government released US$5 million in military aid to Colombia after the Colombian government entered into an impunity agreement not to surrender US nationals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes to the International Criminal Court. Such agreements are in breach of states’ obligations under international law.

The government and security forces stepped up their campaign to undermine the legitimacy of human rights defenders, peace activists and trade unionists. This coincided with paramilitary threats and attacks against these groups. Congress passed legislation granting judicial police powers to the military, thereby strengthening impunity for human rights abuses. On 15 July, the government signed an agreement on the eventual demobilization of the umbrella paramilitary organization Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, following their cease-fire in December 2002. Killings by paramilitaries, however, continued unabated, and there were fears that they were being incorporated into new legal paramilitary structures

Eritrea - Hundreds of people were arrested for the peaceful expression of their opinions or beliefs. Scores of other prisoners of conscience remained held since a major crack-down on dissent in 2001, including former government leaders and journalists. Prisoners of conscience included hundreds of members of minority religions, some detained for nine years. They were held indefinitely without charge or trial, and incommunicado in secret detention places. Torture of political prisoners was reported, including of army deserters who had no right of conscientious objection to military service. Women conscripts were reportedly sexually abused. Information came to light of ill-treatment and possible extrajudicial executions of Ethiopian prisoners of war during the 1998-2000 border conflict.

The ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) remained the sole permitted political party. The government made no announcement of any steps towards multi-party elections as required by the 1997 Constitution. No opposition activity or criticism of the government was tolerated, and no independent non-governmental organization was allowed. Constitutional protection against arbitrary detention and guarantees of “freedom of conscience, expression of opinion, movement, assembly and organization” were ignored. The private media remained banned. Law reform was delayed further and the Special Court, an anticorruption tribunal of military judges that allows no legal defence representation or appeal, continued to convict defendants in secret.

Fifteen journalists of the private and state media remained in detention at the end of the year. Most were independent media journalists who had been detained in the September 2001 crack-down, when the entire private media, which had reported on the calls for reform, was banned.

Aklilu Solomon, a reporter for the US-based Voice of America radio station, was detained and conscripted into the army in July after reporting adverse public reaction to the government’s announcement of names of soldiers killed in the Ethiopian conflict. He had already performed the national service requirements and had medical exemption from being recalled as a reservist.

Hundreds or possibly thousands of government critics and opponents arrested during the first decade following independence in 1991, about whom information was difficult to obtain, were believed to be still detained in secret military and security detention centres around the country, although some had “disappeared” and were feared to have been extrajudicially executed.

Between February and May, police cracked down on minority Christian churches, breaking into religious services and church premises, arresting and beating church members, and torturing them in military detention centres. Those who were liable for military service were conscripted

In August, on a compulsory pre-conscription course at Sawa military camp were arrested for possessing bibles. Twenty-seven girls and 30 boys were held in metal shipping containers in harsh conditions. They were pressed to abandon their faith. At least 330 church members, including over 80 conscripts, were reportedly still detained in secret at the end of 2003.

Torture continued to be used against some political prisoners and as a standard military punishment Religious prisoners were held in Sawa and other military camps, beaten and forced to crawl on sharp stones. They were kept in overcrowded shipping containers in unventilated, hot and unhygienic conditions, and denied adequate food and medical treatment.

Female genital mutilation was widely practised, despite government and UN education programs. Domestic violence against women was reportedly common. Some women conscripts were reportedly subjected to rape or other sexual abuse by army officers.

Estonia - Estonia came under the scrutiny of various international human rights bodies, which examined a number of human rights concerns. These included ill-treatment and excessive use of force by the police, poor conditions in places of detention, and violence against women and children.

Macedonia - In January it was announced that the “Lions”, an ethnic Macedonian paramilitary police force set up following the 2001 insurgency and allegedly responsible for many human rights violations, would be disbanded. It was subsequently agreed that half the force would be incorporated into police or army units.

In June the government bowed to pressure from the USA and entered into an impunity agreement not to surrender US nationals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes to the International Criminal Court. The agreement was passed by parliament in October. Such agreements are in breach of states’ obligations under international law.

Police continued to ill-treat people during arrest and detention. On 16 January the authorities authorized publication of reports by the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, but failed to carry out thorough and impartial investigations into the reports’ serious allegations of torture.

Inadequate investigation continued in the “Rashtanski Lozja” case, in which the authorities were suspected of extrajudicially executing one Indian and six Pakistani nationals on 2 March 2002. In March 2003 the authorities announced a special inquiry, to finish by mid-April. However, no results were forthcoming by the end of 2003.

Similarly, there appeared to be no progress on ascertaining the fate of 20 people who either “disappeared” or were abducted during the 2001 fighting, despite promises by the authorities that concrete information on the cases would be produced.

In January there was repeated criticism of the non-governmental Helsinki Committee in the media and on Macedonian television, coordinated by members of the government including the Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior. The Minister of the Interior referred to the Committee’s chairperson, Dr Mirjana Najchevska, as “state enemy No. 1”, “anti-Macedonian” and an “attorney for the Albanians” because of the Committee’s criticism of human rights violations by the authorities against ethnic Albanians. Dr Najchevska received warnings that she might be arrested when she returned to Macedonia from France. However, following pressure by AI and others, she returned safely and the authorities denied that there was ever a threat to her. She was also personally attacked in a Interior Ministry statement after the Committee issued a press release on 3 September questioning the political impartiality of the police. The same statement threatened criminal proceedings against editors of opposition media.

Saudi Arabia - Gross human rights violations continued and were exacerbated by government “anti-terrorism” policies and acts of violence. Hundreds of suspected religious activists, critics of the state and protesters were arrested or detained following their forcible return from other countries, and the legal status of those held from previous years remained shrouded in secrecy. Women played an unprecedented role in challenging discrimination against women, which nevertheless continued to be endemic. Torture and ill-treatment remained rife. The government continued to deny AI access to the country.

Against a background of protests and violence the government intensified its advocacy of legal and political reforms while simultaneously exacerbating its already dire human rights record in the name of security and “combating terrorism”.

Hundreds of suspected religious activists, critics of the state and protesters, including women, were detained following waves of arrests carried out throughout most of the year. Dozens of them were detained after their forcible return to Saudi Arabia by other governments, including Sudan, Syria, the USA and Yemen. Their conditions of detention and legal status, like those detainees held from previous years, remained unclear due to the secrecy of the criminal justice system which also lacks the most basic standards of fair trial.

Most of the detainees were targeted for arrest in the context of a government policy of “combating terrorism”, the implementation of which was intensified in the aftermath of the bombings in Riyadh and other acts of violence. However, hundreds of people were arrested solely as critics of the state or following demonstrations held during and after the human rights conference in October.

Um Sa’ud, a 60-year-old woman, was arrested on 14 October for having taken part in a demonstration that took place that day in Riyadh. She was reportedly beaten and ill-treated on arrest.

Abd al-‘Aziz al-Tayyar, a 44-year-old former public relations director at Riyadh Chamber of Commerce, was arrested in September for criticizing the government during a television program broadcast by the satellite television station of the UK-based Saudi Arabian opposition group He remained held in a Riyadh prison, reportedly without charge or trial

Flogging and amputation continued to be imposed by courts as judicial corporal punishment. Among those sentenced to flogging during the year was a woman schoolteacher who received 120 lashes in addition to three and a half months in prison. She was reportedly convicted of planting drugs in the briefcase of her fiancé and reporting him to the police in order to have him imprisoned and facilitate her separation from him. According to one press report she was forcibly engaged to him by her family who refused her request to go back on the marriage.

AI made several requests to visit Saudi Arabia, including a request to attend the human rights conference held in October, but received no positive response.

Singapore - Freedom of expression continued to be curbed by restrictive legislation and by the threat of civil defamation suits against political opponents. Thirty-seven men were held without charge or trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA). Jehovah’s Witnesses continued to be imprisoned for their conscientious objection to military service. Caning remained mandatory for certain criminal offences.

Strict government controls on civil society organizations and the press curbed freedom of expression and were an obstacle to the independent monitoring of human rights. A range of restrictive laws remained in place, undermining the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

The threat of potentially ruinous civil defamation suits against opponents of the PAP continued to inhibit political life and engendered a climate of self-censorship. While the government maintained its stance that PAP leaders had a legitimate right to defend their reputation, there were continuing concerns that its real motive was to silence selected opposition figures and remove them from public life.

Foreign domestic workers were reportedly subjected to violence by employers and employment agents.

Slovakia - An investigation into reports that Romani women had been illegally sterilized was not independent and impartial. Many of the victims were subjected to harassment and intimidation. There were reports that the police ill-treated members of the Roma community in custody. People with mental disabilities in psychiatric hospitals and social care homes were restrained in “cage beds”.

Allegations of illegal, and in some cases forcible, sterilization of Romani women were brought to public notice in a report in January by two non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the US-based Center for Reproductive Rights and Poradna pre obcianske a lucske prava, Center for Civil and Human Rights. Pál Csáky, Deputy Prime Minister responsible for Human and Minority Rights, initiated a criminal investigation but also threatened the report’s authors with prosecution for “spreading false rumours” or, should the allegations prove true, failing to report a criminal offence.

The criminal investigation did not comply with international standards. In February, 21 Romani women were taken from their homes without prior warning, for questioning at the police station in Krompachy. The names of 19 of them had apparently been given to the police by the Krompachy hospital. Most were not aware of their right not to comply with an orally presented summons. Some thought they were criminal suspects. The police conduct was perceived as threatening and degrading, and questioning by male police officers demonstrated insensitivity. At least two women who claimed that they had been forcibly sterilized said that officers threatened them and implied that they were induced to make the claim by promises of financial and other gain. The women were reportedly advised to sign criminal complaints of genocide, without advice on the significance of this charge, and told that they could be imprisoned for up to three years for “false accusation” if their complaint proved untrue. After a new investigative team was put in place, some victims were still questioned without prior notice or summons and threatened with prosecution.

Police investigators examined only the existence and authenticity of the women’s signatures on the consent forms and whether the sterilization had been medically necessary according to Slovak professional standards. They did not ask whether the women had freely requested sterilization, received appropriate counselling about its risks and irreversibility, understood the information provided, or were given appropriate time to consider the information and include others in the decision. According to international human rights and professional standards, a signature alone is not sufficient evidence of full and informed consent, and sterilization should never be carried out without that consent.

The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, in a report in October, concluded that “it can reasonably be assumed that sterilizations have taken place, particularly in eastern Slovakia, without informed consent”. He recommended that the government accept its responsibilities, offer swift and just redress to the victims, and enact new legislation on patients’ consent to medical procedures and right of access to their medical files

Cage beds were still in use as a method of restraint in psychiatric hospitals and a number of social care homes for people with mental disabilities, according to a report in June by a regional NGO, the Mental Disability Advocacy Center. This method of restraint is cruel, inhuman and degrading, and violates international law and best professional practice. Cage beds appeared to remain widely in use despite recommendations to discontinue them by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, which described such confinement as “execrable” after a visit to Slovakia in 2000.

Government efforts failed to have a significant impact in reducing widespread prejudice and discrimination against the Roma. Measures aimed at improving their access to employment, health care, housing and education were largely ineffective. A Council of Europe study noted that the mortality rate among Romani children in eastern Slovakia was three times higher than the country’s average and that Romani women in general died 17 years earlier than other women in Slovakia.

The ruling coalition failed to agree comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, reportedly because of opposition within the Christian Democratic Party to equal rights regardless of sexual identity.

In April the Slovak police said that 109 cases of racially and ethnically motivated crimes reported in 2002 were more than double the number of reported cases in 2001, attributing the rise to greater police awareness of racially motivated offences.

The official investigations into allegations that police officers ill-treated Roma in a number of instances were not independent and impartial as required by international law.

In August the Human Rights Committee, reviewing Slovakia’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, expressed concern at reports of high rates of domestic violence

The Committee also expressed concern about the persistent allegations of ill-treatment during police investigations, particularly of the Roma minority, reports of forcible sterilization of Romani women and the continued use of cage beds as a measure of restraint in social care homes and psychiatric institutions.

Slovenia - In May the UN Committee against Torture examined a report by the Slovenian authorities on the measures taken to give effect to the rights enshrined in the UN Convention against Torture. Before the examination of this report AI submitted a briefing to the Committee, highlighting in particular Slovenia’s failure to establish an independent mechanism to address complaints of ill-treatment brought against the police.

In its briefing to the Committee, AI documented reports of ill-treatment and excessive force by police officers.

AI reported the assault on a 23-year-old man in Šentjur-pri-Celju in November 2002 by a police officer who reportedly kicked him to the ground and jumped on his back with such force that he broke his collarbone. The man’s 19-year-old girlfriend was also reportedly beaten and threatened at the police station.

Members of ethnic and racial minorities, often children, were targeted for ill-treatment, which usually occurred during routine police arrests and detentions. Police detainees were frequently denied their rights to call their family or a lawyer, or to receive medical assistance.

AI reported on the failure to investigate promptly and impartially all allegations of ill-treatment as required under the Convention against Torture and Slovenian domestic law. In virtually every case, this was despite formal complaints lodged with the relevant police station or local public prosecutor. Even where victims provided medical evidence of their injuries, their complaints were rejected after apparently summary investigations. The mechanism for investigating complaints of police misconduct did not meet international standards of independence and effectiveness. The authorities also failed to ensure that victims of torture and ill-treatment obtained redress and had the right to fair and adequate compensation.

In its briefing, AI reported the case of a 36-year-old man who died during a house search in Ljubljana in early 2000, allegedly after ill-treatment by special police officers who also refused him timely access to vital medical equipment. More than three years later, a thorough and impartial investigation had still not been initiated.

The Slovenian authorities have repeatedly failed to publish or make accessible up-to-date data on the total number of complaints of ill-treatment against the police and other law enforcement officials, the number of complaints that result in disciplinary or criminal proceedings, and the outcome of such proceedings.

Turkey - Reports of torture and ill-treatment in police detention and disproportionate use of force against demonstrators continued to be matters of grave concern. Those who attempted to exercise their right to demonstrate peacefully or express dissent on some issues continued to face criminal prosecution.

One reason for the persistence of torture and ill-treatment in detention was the failure of law enforcement officials to follow prescribed procedures, including the duty to inform detainees of their rights and to allow access to legal counsel. Lawyers said that in some cases they were told by police officers that a detainee did not wish to see them without providing any evidence of this. Other contributing factors included inadequate documenting of torture and ill-treatment in medical reports, and the acceptance as evidence by courts of statements extracted under torture.

Disproportionate use of force by police during demonstrations was widespread. Television news programs regularly broadcast scenes of demonstrators being beaten, kicked and ill-treated by law enforcement officials. Groups particularly targeted during demonstrations included supporters of the political party DEHAP (Democratic People’s Party), leftist parties, trade unionists, students and anti-war activists.

Of particular concern were the many allegations of people being abducted by plainclothes police and then tortured or ill-treated. These incidents of unrecorded detention were almost impossible to investigate and the perpetrators continued to enjoy impunity.

Sixteen-year-old S.T. reported that on 26 November in the town of Siirt, southeast Turkey, he was abducted in the street by plainclothes police, had a sack put over his head and was pushed into a car. He said that his hands and feet were bound and he was beaten over the head and knocked unconscious. He stated that he was beaten severely and threatened with a gun held to his head for information about the whereabouts of his brother. He was later left in a cemetery outside the town.

Gülbahar Gündüz, active in the women’s section of the Istanbul branch of DEHAP, reported that on 14 June she was abducted in the street in Istanbul by plainclothes police officers, blindfolded, taken in a car to an unknown building, raped and otherwise tortured. Although a report from the Forensic Institute documenting the evidence of torture was pending, an internal police investigation was dropped.

The 11 January reform package ended the possibility of prison sentences handed down for torture and ill-treatment by police being suspended or converted to fines. The new law was not applied retrospectively. As a result, trials and sentences in such cases continued to be suspended, sometimes on the basis of previous laws.

On 18 February the trial of Süleyman Ulusoy (known as “the Hose”), a police superintendent, was suspended under the terms of the December 2000 “amnesty law” (Law No. 4616 on Conditional Suspension of Trials and Sentences for Offences Committed up until April 1999). A videotape showing him beating transvestites with a hosepipe in the Beyoğlu police headquarters in Istanbul had been broadcast on television in 2000. He remained on duty in Istanbul.

Ali Ulvi Uludoğan and his brother İlhan Uludoğan were detained on 25 May for driving through a red traffic light in the Kulu district of Konya province. They were reportedly beaten, kicked and subjected to verbal sexual harassment in detention in Kulu police station. In contravention of the 11 January reforms, the Kulu kaymakam (local state official) on 8 August decided not to allow an investigation of the alleged torture and ill-treatment

A range of laws and regulations was used to restrict freedom of expression and obstruct the activities of human rights defenders. Peaceful statements and activities were prosecuted on grounds of “insulting” various state institutions (Article 159 of the TPC), “aiding and abetting an illegal organization” (Article 169) or “inciting the people to enmity” (Article 312). Other activities were prohibited or punished under Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations, the Law on Associations, press laws and public order legislation. In some cases human rights defenders were imprisoned. However, most of the investigations and trials resulting from such prosecutions ended in acquittals or with sentences being suspended or commuted to fines, highlighting what AI regarded as a pattern of judicial harassment of human rights activists.

Some individuals – including Alp Ayan, a psychiatrist at the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) in Izmir; Rıdvan Kızgın, Head of the Bingöl branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD); and Eren Keskin, a lawyer who co-runs a legal aid project for women survivors of sexual assault in custody – appeared to have been particularly targeted. Punitive fines were a heavy burden on branches of associations and their members.

On 12 November, the first hearing of a trial against TİHV took place in Ankara. Seeking the suspension of nine executive board members of the foundation, the prosecutor alleged that in 2001 TİHV had violated the Law on Foundations by “cooperating” with international organizations without securing the permission of the Council of Ministers, and by raising funds via the Internet. The alleged “cooperation” took the form of translating reports and distributing them to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the European Parliament Rapporteur for Turkey, and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.

Özkan Hoşhanli began serving a 15-month prison sentence on 28 October. He had attempted to observe demonstrations in April and May 1999 in his capacity as the then Chair of the human rights group Mazlum Der (Organization of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed People) in Malatya, and was sentenced to prison and fined in May 2003 under Law No. 2911 for “participating in an illegal demonstration and not dispersing after orders and warnings, and having to be dispersed by government forces with force”. He was a prisoner of conscience.

Teachers and health workers were often posted away from their home as a disciplinary measure for involvement in human rights or trade union activities, and some student activists were expelled or suspended from university.

Sexual assault and harassment of women in police custody continued to be a grave concern, and in February AI published a report on the subject.

Family violence, including so-called “honour killings”, was also a grave concern. AI supported the campaign of women’s groups in Turkey to remove gender-discriminatory articles in the revised draft of the TPC, work on which was started by a parliamentary sub-committee in October.

A few dozen civilians were shot dead by the security forces and village guards, most of them in the southeastern and eastern provinces. Many may have been victims of extrajudicial executions or the use of excessive force.

Hamdiye Aslan, a 37-year-old Kurdish mother of five, was detained in March in Mardin, Kızıltepe province, and held at the Anti-Terror branch of Mardin police headquarters for two days. She was reportedly stripped naked and anally raped with a truncheon, blindfolded and threatened, and taunted when she pleaded with the perpetrators. Hamdiye Aslan was held in Mardin Prison for almost three months until she was released pending trial. Medical reports corroborated her allegations of torture.

Abdullah Yağan was sentenced to 45 months’ imprisonment in July by Diyarbakır State Security Court as a result of playing Kurdish music to the passengers in his minibus.

In July the public prosecutor opened a case in Siirt demanding that parents be forced to change the Kurdish names of their children. The case covered children born in 19 families between 10 July 1997 and 19 March 2002.

Eleven teachers and one engineer were taken into custody on 10 May and allegedly tortured and ill-treated by police, including by being beaten with books written in Kurdish. They were acquitted by the State Security Court on 5 September of charges of aiding and abetting an illegal organization. However, a Ministry of Education internal investigation resulted in 10 of the teachers being posted to other regions of the country, because “Kurdish books were found in their homes”.

Charges were brought against Osman Baydemir, head of the Human Rights Association (ÍHD), Diyarbakır branch, and Eren Keskin, head of the ÍHD branch in Istanbul, in relation to their human rights activities. The chair of the ÍHD branch in Bingöl, Rıdvan Kızgın, was arrested in January after attending a commemoration for two representatives of the legal pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HADEP) who “disappeared” in January 2001.

In a trial following a raid in September 2001 on the Diyarbakır office of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, the office representative, lawyer Sezgin Tanrıkulu, was acquitted in April 2002 of the charge of opening a health centre without permission. However, in October 2002 a new trial was opened against Sezgin Tanrıkulu, and against Eren Keskin. They were charged with insulting the Turkish Armed Forces and the security forces because at a Human Rights Symposium organized by the Diyarbakır branch of the ÍHD in December 2001 they had stated that torture was still being used systematically in Turkey.

United Arab Emirates - Scores of political detainees continued to be held without charge or trial for more than two years in the context of measures taken by the authorities to combat “terrorism”. Death sentences were imposed or upheld for murder and drug offences, but no executions were known to have been carried out. A man was reportedly sentenced to hand amputation.
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sleep well tonight america, your hard work is needed in the morning to help fund, arm and protect these types of atrocities! Don't it make ya feel good?

When are you gonna cry about their rape rooms, eh??

it does not make me feel good,


it makes me feel



GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT

and you wonder why we have ppl flying airliners into our buildings with attitudes like this....if you have nothing constructive to say or related to the topic plz stay out of it.

Went to school with the Dali Lama. Self professed know it all. Why waste your time?

free country

That list is missing Iran, Iraq, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and some others as well. Then again, these seem to be ones even less obvious that what I listed.

Oh yeah, and calm down a tad to everyone in this thread.

I replied to only one person in this thread who constantly tries to derail topics.

Not as free as you might think, my friend.

--PunkDavid

Iran, Iraq, and Nicaragua weren't in the coalition of the willing. I don't think Guatemala was either, but we sure have propped up some awful fucking people in Latin America over the years out of fear of "Communists".

--PunkDavid

Leave to me to miss the very first post of a thread. Things like that happens when you're at work trying to scan through a super-long document like that.

I understand it was veeeery long. LIttleWing had asked me in another post to prove we support such regimes so i found the list of coalition of the willing and allies in the war on terror, then went to amnesty international and cut and pasted straight from their annual report. I don't expect anyone to read everything in it but at least the bolded parts would be nice, if one has the time

And if we (Britain and America) help them add Japan to the list, see http://www.justicefornickbaker.org/index.shtml

*waits patiently for Little Wing's reply*

*tumbleweed blows by...crickets chirp*

so... most governments are corrupt.


whoever would have guessed.

Exactly.

The rest of this has nothing to do with the above quote:

-WARNING- Opinion Ahead

Proceed at your own risk!

Its not exactly the best way to create discussion by basically calling out someone by name in a thread title. I know that I personally would take a defensive stance if a thread was titled "Tsunami: Why You're Wrong". The more I've talked with LW on this board, the more I have realized that if you try to find some common ground and understand why he thinks and feels certain ways, an actual REAL discussion can take place. We know his stance on things. Accept it and discuss it with him...PM him if you really want to know. But I really do not think this type of thing is helpful on here.

-Opinion Over-


Yeah Yeah I know, I'm always the mother!

I'll chill out

Look, he asked for proof that we supported these types of regimes, it was much too long to put in the thread he asked in so i made a new one. So I'm not calling him out and who woulda guessed?? Well obviously littlewing since he asked me for proof.

I appreciate your opinion but it seems to be a bit off in this case as i'm not calling anyone out rather posting requested information. I don't see how someone saying 'show me proof' and me doing that is any cause to get defensive.

Fair enough VOR,

I respect your opinion but I also felt the need to express how I think LW would view this topic.

Well I haven't even seen Little Wing in this thread. He's either reading all that stuff or doesn't care. Either way, he now knows a bit more then he did about U.S. Foreign Policy: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED VOR.

ah some of you liberals and your cute little "you really showed him" circle jerks.