Russia China cracking down as leaders fear grip may wane: HRW
Date
1/27/2016 8:27:30 AM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Russia’s President Vladimir Putin welcomes China’s President Xi Jinping during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow May 8 2015. Reuters
By Ayla Jean Yackley
ISTANBUL: Russia and China are imposingtheir biggest clampdown on civil society in a generation andEurope's efforts to manage its migrant crisis risk underminingits core values Human Rights Watch says in its annual globalreview.
The review of more than 90 countries' human rights recordsreleased in Istanbul on Wednesday highlighted Russia and Chinabut said rights crackdowns are also taking place in countriesfrom Ethiopia to Turkey.
"In China and Russia ... the leadership has an implicit pactwith their people: 'We will give you increased prosperity ifyou let us govern without accountability" the group's executivedirector Kenneth Roth said in an interview.
"As the economy heads downhill they worry about popularreaction ... and we see in both Russia and China a crackdown oncivil society of the sort we have not seen in a generation."
Roth cited moves that make life harder for civil societygroups in Russia which receive foreign funding. Chineseactivists struggle to establish rights groups and riskimprisonment under broad uses of anti-terror laws he said.
Some of it was the result of the proliferation of socialmedia.
"If you are an autocrat your ultimate fear is to see yourcitizens in the streets protesting against you ... Social mediais extremely difficult to control" Roth said.
China rejects any criticism of its human rights recordsaying it is a country ruled by law and that it opposes externalinterference in its domestic affairs.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will not allowthe West to use civil rights groups to foment unrest in Russiasuggesting their activities are sometimes politically-motivatedand designed to undermine the tightly-controlled politicalsystem he has spent 15 years shaping.
MIGRANTS
Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the influx ofrefugees to Europe from Syria and elsewhere has coincided withthe rise of populist political parties exploiting Islamophobia.
"The refugee crisis threatens the openness of the EuropeanUnion but it is threatening more fundamental values" Rothsaid. "We feel a lot of the popular reaction against refugees isa product of the chaotic nature of the flow so far."
Roth said one spillover from this was that Europe was notfocusing on Turkey's military crackdown on Kurdish militants andthe prosecution of critical journalists politicians andacademics who accuse President Tayyip Erdogan of increasinglyauthoritarian tendencies.
"There's an urgent need for the international community tospeak out ... but unfortunately Europe is so preoccupied withenlisting the Turkish government with the refugee flow there'srelatively little public attention on the crackdown on rightsthat is currently taking place here" he said.
Erdogan has vowed to continue operations until Turkey is"cleansed" of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has wagedan insurgency since 1984 and is deemed a terrorist organisationby Turkey the United States and European Union.
Reuters