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.
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.
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.
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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’.”
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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.