Advertisement
Advertisement
Alex Lo
SCMP Columnist
My Take
by Alex Lo
My Take
by Alex Lo

How to weaponise human rights

  • The US has perfected the practice by covering up its own discretions, ignoring others when it’s convenient while exaggerating or even making up the misdeeds of rivals

It’s good being the biggest dog on the block. Washington can stick its nose into anyone’s business – and of course, not sticking its nose when it’s convenient.

Tibet, for example. It seems the United States has realised it needs something more besides Xinjiang and the Uygurs in its harassment of China. Now, it’s getting back to that old chestnut, the Dalai Lama.

The US State Department has appointed a special coordinator for Tibetan issues – to restart talks between Beijing and the Tibetan spiritual leader, and obviously, to impose itself on the region.

The appointment signals “US President Joe Biden’s commitment to advancing the human rights of Tibetans and addressing environmental challenges facing the Tibetan plateau”.

But isn’t it more of democratic India’s own business? The Dalai Lama and his lieutenants have set up base in the country for decades. Maybe it’s time for the two rivals, China and India, to have a chat about that.

China to America: No way to treat the guy who saved your life

Meantime, talk about keeping mum when it’s convenient. Over two days earlier this month, Indian security forces gunned down 14 civilians in the restive northeastern state of Nagaland. You are likely not to have heard about that, and there has been nary a word from Washington. Imagine if it was Chinese security forces killing civilians.

I quote from a Human Rights Watch report: “On December 4, 2021, soldiers from the 21 Para Special Forces army unit shot and killed six coal miners in Nagaland’s Mon district, saying the soldiers mistook the miners for militants.

“The deaths led to violent clashes between local villagers and troops, killing seven more civilians and a soldier. A day later, the Assam Rifles army unit killed another person after protesters attacked their camp. The local police filed a First Information Report saying that the military had not made a requisition to the police station to provide a police guide for their counter-insurgency operation and thus, ‘it is obvious that that the intention of the security forces is to murder and injure civilians’.”

When a Chinese migrant worker reads Heidegger

It’s likely no one will be held responsible. Under the six-decade-old Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, forces deployed in internal conflicts enjoy broad powers to kill and then effective immunity from prosecution.

The act provides judicial cover for gross human rights violations alleged in Manipur, and Jammu and Kashmir. But such places rarely figure in the vocabulary of Washington, unlike say, Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
31