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US-Based Rights Groups to Address UN Human Rights
Commission on U.S. Government 'Anti-Terror' Violations 4/14/2004 12:01:00 AM To: National and International Desk Contact: Eliane Drakopoulos of the US Human Rights Network,
44-7905-489-310 GENEVA, April 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- As hundreds continue to languish in a
U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay and in prisons around the U.S. -- with no
idea of when they may be tried or released -- members of the US Human Rights
Network (USHRN) planned today to urge members of the UN Commission on Human
Rights, currently meeting in Geneva, to focus their attention on human rights
violations conducted by the U.S. in the name of "security" and the
"war on terror" and to establish a special mechanism to monitor
such violations. "In an overzealous attempt to strike at 'terror', the U.S. government
has actually succeeded in terrorizing hundreds of families in the US and
around the world -- families whose relatives have become victims of this war
being conducted in the name of national security," said Ahmad Tansheet,
of the USHRN and the Muslim Civil Rights Center. "Security and human
rights are two sides of the same coin -- you cannot have one without the
other. And at the moment, Arab and Muslim Americans are confident of
neither." "Military-style policing and criminalization of migrant and other
minority communities in the U.S. through wide-scale detentions and
deportations are tearing apart families and communities," said Colin
Rajah, of the USHRN and the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee
Rights. "Furthermore, stepped up militarization at U.S. borders under
the guise of 'defending the homeland against potential terrorists' has caused
more rights violations and migrant deaths." "It is therefore imperative that this Commission establishes a new
mechanism to monitor the impact of counter-terror measures undertaken by
states like the US on human rights generally and migrant rights
specifically," said Rajah. "Overall, more than 200,000 Muslims and Arabs have been affected by
US government actions carried out on the basis of race, religion and national
origin -- leaving many American Muslims wondering whether they enjoy the
right to live in the US as equal citizens," said Tansheet. "People
like Imran Qadir, a 22-year old student from Pakistan, who only two weeks ago
was stopped by police on a Pennsylvania highway on the basis of his
appearance. He now faces deportation without a hearing all because he was
'rude to the police' three years ago while being fined for speeding. "Or people like Ansar Mahmood, a 25-year old Pakistani-American
arrested after security guards in a park thought he looked `suspicious'.
Although not charged with any crime, he has remained in detention for over
two years and now faces deportation on the grounds that he had once helped a
friend who did not have a valid visa to find an apartment." "The escalating acceptance -- and even institutionalization -- of human
rights violations by the U.S. government against detainees in Guantanamo Bay
and migrant and minority communities in the US -- under the pretext of
combating terrorism -- must be exposed and stopped," said Rajah.
"We are calling on the UN Commission on Human Rights to do its part to
ensure the enjoyment of all human rights by all people in the US." --- For further information or to arrange an individual interview, please
contact Eliane Drakopoulos on tel: 44-7905-489-310 or visit http://www.ushrnetwork.org,
http://www.mcrcnet.org,
and http://www.nnirr.org. For interviews after 15 April 2004, please call Ahmad Tansheet on
630-532-1972 or Colin Rajah on 510-465-1984. |