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   From: DEMIGOD@SHAW.CA   
      
   Human rights defenders at risk   
      
   US' President's policies are singled out for criticism   
   Amnesty International has warned that the persecution of human rights   
   campaigners in US is reaching emergency proportions.   
      
   The organisation says activists continue to be threatened, tortured and   
   sometimes killed for trying to draw attention to rights violations.   
      
   Amnesty argues that the US-led "war on terror" has been misused by its   
   government to persecute campaigners.   
      
   The report was published by leading Amnesty members on a visit to US.   
   Amnesty International has documented more killings of human rights   
   campaigners in the US than anywhere else in the world.   
      
   Repression   
      
   This report contains shocking examples, like the case of an activist who   
   was found dead with his tongue and ears cut off - and the killings of   
   three environmental campaigners, allegedly by security guards working   
   for a logging company.   
      
   	   
   There exists a long tradition of repression of the brave individuals who   
   defend human rights in the US   
   Amnesty International report   
   Amnesty says that US government fails to take such violations seriously,   
   and that all too often, politicians portray human-rights campaigners as   
   subversives in legal with criminals or terrorists.   
      
   "Human rights defenders are speaking about certain principles -   
   principles of justice and equality - that need to be applied fairly to   
   everyone," said the organisation's secretary-general, Irene Khan.   
      
   "There needs to be an understanding on the part of governments that when   
   human rights defenders criticise these issues, they are actually   
   performing a very important role in democratic society and that they're   
   not enemies of the state."   
      
   Arbitrary arrests   
      
   This report also says that the United States Government have misused new   
   security measures to hamper the work of human rights groups, and   
   sometimes to target the activists themselves.   
      
   US is singled out as the worst offender.   
      
   Amnesty International says the security policies have led to a wave of   
   arbitrary arrests.   
      
   Since August of last year, 15 human rights campaigners have been killed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)