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Rights group slams U.S., U.K.

LONDON: Britain and America have been accused of paying lip service to democracy by propping up “autocrats” such as Pakistan’s President Parvez Musharraf for political convenience.

In its hard-hitting annual report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has singled out London and Washington for supporting “pseudo-democrats” like General (retd.) Musharraf who, it said, were simply “masquerading as democrats.”

It said Britain and America had refused to distance themselves from General Musharraf despite his widespread concerns over his attempts to “tilt the electoral field” ahead of this month’s elections.

Far from condemning him, U.S. President George W.Bush had actually praised him for putting Pakistan “on the road to democracy,” said executive director Kenneth Roth. The report published a long list of countries where, according to it, human rights were being repressed with western powers looking the other way. Partly this was because their own record on human rights in the “war on terror” had compromised their claims as defenders of people’s rights.

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