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30 March 2003: "In defence of HRW"

I think Steven den Beste is a wee bit rough in his assessment of Human Rights Watch. I developed a deep respect for HRW during my time with ICTY, and Den Beste's claim that HRW is "deeply concerned about human rights abuse as long as it's not by anyone opposing the US" is, in my experience, rubbish. HRW compiled some damn fine dossiers of material on everybody involved in the Yugoslav wars, and not too long ago it was vehemently protesting the election of Libya to the chair of the UN Human Rights Commission.

HRW, I believe, does not like to cry wolf; they don't issue reports until they've got a picture of what's going on. And right now, it's hard to tell what is going in Iraq. As for what had already happened in Iraq, check out this link. It's a shame Den Beste evidently didn't.

That said, he's probably spot-on as far as Amnesty International is concerned.

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