By Huang Yue and Cheng Zhuo
BEIJING, Mar. 14 (ChinaMil) -- The Information Office of China’s State Council published a report titled “Human Rights Record of the United States in 2018” on Thursday. According to the report, the US shirked international responsibilities, unscrupulously carried out unilateral “America First” policies, constantly played the “retreat” drama, bullied the weak, and caused human rights disasters in its overseas military operations. The US has become a “troublemaker” that has drawn the universal condemnation.
The report noted that despite years of strong condemnation and appeal from the international community, the United States decided to break its promise and continue to run the notorious Guantanamo military prison in Cuba. Most of the prisoners there have not been tried. Los Angeles Times reported on its website on July 26, 2018 that a Pakistani, being mistaken for an extremist, had been imprisoned and repeatedly tortured in Guantanamo for as long as 14 years without trial, suffering serious physical and mental damage.
The report citing United Nations statistics said that the number of civilian casualties caused by US air strikes in Afghanistan during the first nine months of 2018 was higher than any year since 2009.
The report pointed out that, according to a CNN report on April 14, 2018, the US and its allies launched the air strike against Syria, in the name of destroying Syrian chemical weapon facilities, without concrete evidence and UN Security Council authorization.
Quoting the Associated Press on Nov. 14, 2018, the report highlighted the large number of civilian casualties caused by the drone war waged by the US in Yemen for 16 years. In a single drone strike in 2018 alone, at least 30 of the dead were civilians. Statistics also showed that the US had launched 176 drone strikes in 2017 and 2018, leading to 205 deaths. Chris Murphy, a US senator, said “The US-backed war has made Yemen a hell on earth. There is a US imprint on each of these civilian deaths.”
The report marked that the US brazenly announced its withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council. Human rights experts said that the most insidious intention of the US move was to protect itself from allegations of human-rights abuses.
