HRW calls on West to end 'Arab exception'
23 January, 2012
CAIRO: Popular uprisings sweeping the Arab world exposed biases by Western governments that supported Arab autocratic rulers for the sake of "stability" while turning a blind eye to their repressive policies, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Sunday. The New-York based group urged democratic governments to adopt persistent and consistent support for peaceful protesters and to press both autocratic rulers and newly emerging democracies to avoid intolerance and seeking revenge. "The events of the past year show that the forced silence of people living under autocrats should never have been mistaken for popular complacency," HRW's Executive Director Kenneth Roth said. The Arab Spring revolts began in Tunisia in late 2010 and quickly spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain, deposing or challenging authoritarian rulers as citizens who long seemed incapable or unwilling to rise against decades of repression took to the streets in a stunning awakening. In some ways, the unexpected uprisings amounted to a slap to the US and other Western governments, which had supported autocratic regimes that served as bulwarks against extremists hostile to the West and appeared to offer stability in a volatile region. Western governments also have been accused of being selective in supporting the protesters, with NATO airstrikes proving key to the ouster of slain Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi. Meanwhile, the West has stood largely on the sidelines amid continued crackdowns in Bahrain, Yemen and Syria. "The people driving the Arab Spring deserve strong international support to realise their rights and to build genuine democracies," Roth said in the group's annual report, which covers some 90 countries. He added that the Arab world is in a "transformative moment," and it will not be an easy one. HRW pointed to five main issues that dominated the relationship between Western governments and their Arab autocratic friends: the threat of political extremism, the fight against terrorism, support for Israel, protection of the oil flow and cooperation in stemming immigration. End.
|
