The China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS) released a report on Tuesday that details “a series of crimes” committed by the United States (US), which “seriously violate international law.”
The report titled “U.S. commits serious crimes of violating human rights in the Middle East and beyond,” outlines “war crimes, crimes against humanity, arbitrary detention, abuse of torture, torture of prisoners, and indiscriminate unilateral sanctions” by the US in the Middle East and surrounding regions. The NGO asserts that these crimes constitute “systematic violations of human rights with lasting and far-reaching harm.”
It accuses the US of committing crimes that have led to “frequent and repeated wars” in the Middle East, including rallying allies to launch the Gulf War (1990-1991), the Afghanistan War (2001-2021), and the Iraq War (2003-2011), among others. It also notes that by being “deeply involved” in the Libyan War and the Syrian War, Washington had created “a humanitarian disaster rarely seen throughout the world,” which has caused involved countries to be trapped in a “quagmire of conflicts and security dilemmas” that have seriously undermined the local population’s “rights to life, health, personal dignity, freedom of religious belief, survival and development.” To this end, the report labels the US “a veritable “war empire,”” noting that since the country’s founding, there have been “less than 20 years in which it has not participated in a war.”
It also accuses Washington of “killing innocent civilians indiscriminately” in order to “achieve its own military goals.” In this regard, the NGO cited a September 2019 United Nations (UN) report, which said that multiple US airstrikes in Syria “did not take the necessary precautions to distinguish between military targets and civilians.” It also referred to a March 18, 2019, airstrike by US drones that killed at least 64 civilian women and children as the US military searched for “extremist groups” in the town of Baghouz on the Syrian-Iraqi border.
The China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS) on Tuesday released a report, revealing a series of crimes committed by the U.S. in the Middle East and surrounding areas that seriously violated int'l law. Read more: https://t.co/1PbYqTmh0A pic.twitter.com/RezgThrlBi
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) August 9, 2022
Furthermore, the NGO said the US “irresponsibly” withdrew troops from Iraq in 2011, following which extremist groups such as the Islamic State exploited the security vacuum and became “increasingly powerful.” “The ensuing frequent violent terrorist attacks become the biggest challenge threatening the security of Iraq and the region,” it states.
CSHRS went on to say that in its pursuit of maintaining “military, economic and conceptual hegemony,” the US has consequently “severely undermined the sovereignty of related countries in the Middle East as well as their people's rights to development and health.” By interfering in other countries’ internal affairs, Washington has instigated “separatism and confrontation,” it argues.
The Chinese NGO also describes the US as “the key mastermind” behind the Arab Spring—which incited revolutions in Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Algeria, Syria, and Libya—“by providing funding to pro-US individuals and groups.” It added that the US “abused unilateral sanctions against sovereign countries,” which has caused “severe economic losses and a decline in the quality of life of the people in those countries.”
It went on to say that the US created a “clash of civilizations” and violated freedom of religion and human dignity, saying it has been “hostile to Islamic civilization” by destroying the Middle East’s historical and cultural heritage, and imprisoning and torturing Muslims “recklessly.”
China’s report seems to have come in retaliation to a UN report on China’s human rights situation in its Xinjiang province, whose publication has been strongly backed by the US. The report is believed to contain details on China’s alleged human rights violations against the Uyghur Muslims as well as other minorities in the region. China has long requested to defer the release of the report, although it is unclear if Beijing has seen the revised report.
According to a document circulating among UN officials, Chinese authorities told the UN in a letter that the “so-called assessment” of the controversial region “is of grave concern” to the Chinese leadership. It added that if the report is published, it “will intensify politicisation and bloc confrontation in the area of human rights, undermine the credibility of the [Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights], and harm the cooperation between [the] OHCHR and member states.”