Clinton's human rights policy is that of 'live and let die'

US lawmakers have attacked the Clinton administration's human rights policy as a "live and let die" approach that puts US interests above oppression of other nations' people.

"The message we are sending to the world is that the government of the United States is committed to the protection of fundamental human rights only insofar as such a commitment does not threaten to interfere with anything else it wants to accomplish," said Representative Chris Smith, who was chairing a meeting of the House International Relations Committee.

Criticism came from members of both parties, as the State Department presented its annual country-by-country human rights report.

Representative Lee Hamilton, a democrat, questioned whether the reports have accomplished anything during the two decades they've been issued.

"Do you think we really have saved lives?" he asked, adding, "I think there's a lot of cynicism attached to these human rights reports." Freshman Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, sitting on the panel for the first time, complained that the United States seems to have settled into a dichotomy policy that separates human rights from other issues, especially involving allies and unyielding nations such as China.

"We are here in a sense to cry tears for the victims (of human rights abuses), but they seem to be crocodile tears," Kucinich said.

Kucinich, who complained that the United States wasn't doing enough to punish nations that exploit child labour such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, called the US human rights position a "live and let die policy".

Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck, the US human rights chief, defended the policy of engagement, saying that isolating countries such as China can worsen the situation for its citizens. He also noted that in some cases the United States has taken action against abusive nations, including imposing economic sanctions against Pakistan, for example.

"The spotlight itself can have a very strong impact on human rights," Shattuck said, arguing that the State Department reports hold countries up for a critical world view.

Overall, members of the House Committee praised Shattuck's work and the country reports, which found that the worst human rights abuses occurred in China, Nigeria, Cuba and Burma during 1996.

Committee members were most critical of the Clinton administration for maintaining normal trade relations with China and inviting its defence minister, General Chi Haotian, who led the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, to visit the United States and the White House last December.

"The official wining and dining of the Butcher of Beijing is an important symbol, not only of our government's disastrous one-way love affair with the brutal communist government of China, but also of the broader systemic problem in the relationship between the protection of fundamental human rights and other goals of foreign and domestic policy," Smith said.

UNI