WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States found fault on Monday with the human rights records of some of its allies in the "war on terrorism" but said people would one day look back and see the closer contact helped reduce abuses.
Secretary of State Colin Powell unveiled the criticism in an annual human rights report which he said gave a voice to the voiceless, shed light on the "darkest of abuses" and offered a benchmark for a global rights agenda pursued by Washington.
"We will also fully explore the new opportunities that have been created by international cooperation against terrorism to establish, expand and deepen discussions with other governments on human rights issues," he pledged at a news briefing.
The introduction to the report, in which the United States highlights trends, found fault with war allies Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Russia.
Israel, Washington's closest ally in the Middle East, comes in for criticism in its handling of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. "Israeli security forces sometimes used excessive force in contravention of their own rules of engagement," it said.
The State Department document, at www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/, said the victory of the year was ending Taliban rule in Afghanistan – the outcome of a U.S. military campaign in conjunction with Afghan allies.
"Afghan citizens have been released from the brutal and oppressive rule of the Taliban. Afghan women, who suffered violence and repression, are now beginning to resume their roles in society," it said, adding more work had to be done.
Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based group whose data was quoted frequently in the report, praised the administration for not shying away from criticizing allies, but questioned whether the war had really expanded contacts with rights abusers.
The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights accused the administration of going soft on Egyptian military courts by removing a sentence from the 2000 issue that said they did not ensure civilians "due process before an independent tribunal."
"It appears the United States' ability to comment objectively and authoritatively on human rights abuses around the world has been compromised by its own disregard for international fair trial standards at home," said Elisa Massimino, head of the group's Washington office.
She was apparently referring to President George W. Bush's order in November that allowed military tribunals for non-U.S. citizens linked to al Qaeda, the group led by Osama bin Laden accused of attacking the United States on Sept. 11.
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
To muster an alliance against the Taliban and al Qaeda, Washington turned to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Central Asian countries with poor human rights records for bases and overflight rights so its forces could hit Afghanistan.
"In addition to bringing the world together in a common cause, this effort has provided an opportunity to expand the dialogue on human rights and fundamental freedoms with a broad spectrum of countries," the report said.
Lorne Craner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, in charge of the report, said he was given access during a recent visit to Uzbekistan to the justice and the interior ministry and not just the foreign ministry as before.
Pressed to offer examples on Saudi Arabia, he said the U.S. government was talking to them about rights issues but had no concrete examples of areas being addressed.
But he insisted that forging alliances with such countries would pay off. "I think it's actually for the better that it happened and I think we'll look back some years from now and say it was an important by-product of our alliance work."
The black list included predictable targets Belarus, Burma, China, Colombia, Cuba, Kenya, Liberia, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, North Korea, Sudan, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
In the case of China, the report said the authorities had tried to use the "war on terrorism" as a pretext to justify a crackdown on Muslim separatists among the Uighur ethnic minority of Xinjiang province.
Moscow has made a similar argument in the case of Chechen separatists alleged to have links with al Qaeda.
The report noted Russian allegations of support from al Qaeda but added that sweeps by Russian forces in Chechnya to root out separatist fighters were often accompanied by credible reports of disappearances, extrajudicial killing, extortion, torture, and arbitrary detention."
In Uzbekistan, Washington's most important Central Asian ally for military purposes, thousands of people accused of crimes against the constitution remain in detention, it said. Most of them are Muslims who reject the state's officially sanctioned version of their religion.
Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch said it was a "bit silly" to suggest contacts had increased thanks to the war as the administration had always had opportunities for dialogue.
"I think the war creates added urgency to address human rights, particularly in the Middle East and Central Asia, and this report acknowledges that," he said, adding it seemed "candid, accurate and thorough" in criticizing allies.
He noted that the report criticized others' detention of prisoners without charge, as the United States has done with the 300 al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners it is holding.
"There are many critical references to countries that detain suspects without charge and of course the criticism could legitimately be leveled at the U.S.," he said.