Burma, NKorea, China criticised in US human rights report
February 26 (ABC News) - A US State department human rights report has cast an unfavorable light on several Asian countries including China, North Korea and Burma.
The US State Department says it had been hoped that China would continue to make "incremental" advances in human rights, as seen in 2002. But it says China's approach to human rights regressed last year.
The report cites the arrest of democracy activists and individuals discussing subjects deemed sensitive by the government on the Internet. It says others targetted included labour protesters, defence lawyers, journalists and church members.
The US report says the "harsh repression" of the Falun Gong continued and that the government used the war on terror to justify its ongoing crackdown against Muslim Uighurs. It says ongoing abuses in Tibet include execution without due process, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention without public trial.
Widespread abuses in North Korea
Meanwhile the United States says North Korea is "one of the world's most inhumane regimes". In its annual review on global human rights, the US State Department says North Korea "committed widespread abuses of human rights" in 2003.
It says rigid controls over information reflect the totalitarian repression of North Korean society. It says human rights abuses documented in North Korea in 2003 include killings, torture, forced abortions and infanticide.
Elsewhere in Asia, Burma has been criticised for its "highly authoritarian regime" which has overseen "numerous, serious human rights abuses." The report has criticised Saudi Arabia and Israel, we well as Russian President Vladimir Putin's consolidation of power and rebuked Haiti's President, Jean Bertrand Aristide.
A bleak assessment was also made of Iran, Zimbabwe, Libya and Cuba.