The China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS) on Tuesday released a report, revealing a series of crimes committed by the United States in the Middle East and surrounding areas that seriously violated international law.
Titled U.S. Commits Serious Crimes of Violating Human Rights in the Middle East and Beyond, the CSHRS report focused on Washington’s systematic violations of human rights, including launching wars, massacring civilians, and damaging the right to life and survival; forced regime change, unilateral sanctions, infringing on people’s rights to development, life and health; creating a “clash of civilizations” and abusing imprisonment and torture, and violating freedom of religion and human dignity.
Taking the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War as examples, the report said they are the two largest wars launched by the United States in the Middle East and surrounding regions, spelling dreadful disasters to the lives and living conditions of the people of the two countries.
More than 174,000 people died directly in the war in Afghanistan, of whom more than 47,000 were civilians, according to the report, citing the Brown University’s Costs of War Project.
The nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan forced 2.6 million Afghans to flee abroad and displaced 3.5 million others, the report said, citing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
And after U.S. unilaterally launched the Iraq War in 2003, about 209,000 Iraqi civilians died in wars and violent conflicts, and about 9.2 million Iraqis became refugees or were forced to leave their homeland between 2003 and 2021, the report said, citing data from Statista, a global statistical database.
Almost two decades after the war started, the U.S. public is still divided over whether it’s right to use military force in the Iraq War.
A survey published by the Pew Research Center in March 2018 showed that in late March 2003, a few days after the U.S. invasion, 71 percent supported the decision to use military force, while just 22 percent said it was the wrong decision. Fifteen years later, those supporting fell to 43 percent.
The report underlined that the United States has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, arbitrary detention, abuse of torture, torture of prisoners, and indiscriminate unilateral sanctions in the Middle East and surrounding areas.
The United States established Guantanamo Bay detention camp to lock up a total of nearly 780 “terrorists” from the Middle East and elsewhere, many of whom have been held without bringing any criminal charge, according to the report, adding that, more than 30 people, old and frail, remain in the prison, who are deprived of liberty for long periods of time and subjected to endless mental and physical torture.
Facts show that the United States has seriously violated the basic human rights of people in the Middle East and other places, causing permanent damage and irreparable losses to countries and people in the region, the report said.
As the nature of American hegemony and the barbarity, cruelty and perniciousness of its power politics have been completely exposed, people of the world would have a better understanding of the hypocrisy and deception of American democracy and its human rights, the report noted.
MDP’s Chairperson, Fayyaz Ismail has said today that even if the Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed, has said that MDP has agreed to the referendum for changing the governing system, there has been no such agreement between MDP and the Democrats.
Heading today’s Parliamentary sitting, Nasheed said that MDP has informed the Democrats that they will give their full cooperation to the referendum.
“As far as I know, MDP asked the Democrats to not support any party and if they do so MDP will cooperate with the referendum,” Nasheed said.
Speaking to Sun, Fayyaz said, in response to Nasheed, that there is no agreement between MDP and the Democrats and that Nasheed was adding to the truth. He also said that he does not know any reason for Nasheed to do so.
“That is not correct information. I don’t know why Nasheed said that,” Fayyaz said.
Nasheed, who left MDP, after remaining the leader of the party for many years, due to issues between President Solih and himself, said today that he can no longer trust MDP.
After MDP’s primary elections, Nasheed refused to support President Solih. When the relationship between them both soured further and the people who supported Nasheed left MDP and established a new political party called the Democrats.
After the Election Commission registered the party, Nasheed also left MDP and signed up for the Democrats.
The interim council of the Democrats, who received seven percent in the first round of the presidential elections, presented both of the two main political parties with heavy conditions. However, the interim Chairperson of Democrats, Hassan Latheed, even said that they decided not to support either party in the second round as both parties refused to agree to the conditions.
Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated Dr. Mohamed Muizzu on winning the Maldives presidential election on Tuesday, expressing keenness in deepening the age-old ties between Maldives and China.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Chinese ambassador Wang Lixin shared a message sent by Xi, congratulating the Maldivian president-elect.
In the message, Xi noted that the friendly relations between Maldives and China date back to ancient times.
“China and Maldives are not only good friends of sincerity, mutual trust and mutual assistance, but also good partners for common development and prosperity,” he said.
Xi said that he attached great importance to the enhancement of Maldives-China relations, and expressed keenness in working with Muizzu on that front.
“I’m ready to work with you to carry forward the traditional friendship and deepen practical cooperation so as to promote China-Maldives future-oriented all-round friendly and cooperative partnership with more progress,” he said.
Maldives and China established official diplomatic relations on April 15, 1972. The relations between the two countries had seen significant enhancement during the first PPM administration from 2013-2018.
Muizzu, from the PPM-PNC, won the presidential election runoff on Saturday with 54 percent of votes, beating MDP’s Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the incumbent president, who won 46 percent.
RIYADH, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) — The China-Arab States Publishing Cooperation and Exchange Forum was held on Sunday in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.
Under the theme of “Deepening China-Arab Publishing Cooperation and Exchanges, Promoting Mutual Learning between Chinese and Arab Civilizations,” publishers from China and Arab countries reviewed their cooperation in translation, publishing, copyright trade, book fair platforms and online publishing.
The summit also paved the way for a translation project of 100 Chinese and Arab classics, exploring the establishment of a China-Saudi Arabia online publishing exchange mechanism, jointly expanding the platform for international cooperation, and promoting mutual learning between Chinese and Arab civilizations.
The event was attended by a senior official with the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), representatives from the Arab Publishers Association and the Saudi Scientific Research and Knowledge Exchange Center, as well as more than 100 Chinese and Arab publishers, scholars, experts and writers.