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Editorials
Monday, February 19, 2001Barak joins Sharon
in unity governmentThe issue: Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak has agreed to stay on in the cabinet of Ariel Sharon as defense minister.
EHUD Barak's acceptance of an invitation from the man who defeated him, Ariel Sharon, to stay on in the Israeli government as defense minister should add credibility to Sharon's attempts to lead Israel following the collapse of peace talks with the Palestinians.
The outgoing premier's decision paves the way for the formation of a broad-based government of national unity with a less ambitious peace agenda. The conservative Sharon has renounced concessions to the Palestinians proposed during the so-called Olso negotiations but says he seeks further discussions based on limited aims.
Sharon and Barak agreed to form a coalition that would include former Prime Minister Shimon Peres as foreign minister and Barak in the defense post. Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize for his previous peace diplomacy and presumably would not agree to join the cabinet if he did not think Sharon was serious about making peace.
Sharon hoped to form a new government quickly at a time when many Israelis are demanding more effective action against the Palestinian uprising. But some members of Barak's Labor Party denounced his decision to join the Sharon government -- after announcing he was retiring from politics -- and indicated they might try to block the agreement.
Speaking to Labor members of parliament, Barak said he wanted to retain the defense post -- which he held for 20 months in conjunction with the prime ministership -- to confront the "emergency situation" with the Palestinians.
Palestinians warned that Barak and Peres would be used as "a fig leaf" in any peace talks for Sharon's hard-line policies.
But their addition to the cabinet could make it more difficult for the Palestinians to exploit political differences among the Israelis. And it might make it easier for Sharon to move toward the middle of the road, reducing his need for support from conservatives.
Sharon exploited the failure of Barak's negotiations with Yasser Arafat and the subsequent rioting that has taken more than 400 lives, most of them Palestinian.
Israelis have suffered, too. Last week a Palestinian bus driver plowed into a crowd at a bus station in central Israel, killing eight Israelis.
A former general and war hero, Sharon has a reputation for using tough tactics against the Palestinians and voters may have hoped that he would crack down harder than Barak to restore order.
With the parliament narrowly divided, Sharon evidently realized he needed to form a government that could command broader support. With Barak and Peres on board, he may have it.
Torture discredits China
LESS than two weeks before officials from the International Olympic Committee are to visit Beijing to assess its bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, Amnesty International has issued a report declaring that torture and mistreatment of prisoners are "widespread and systematic" in China.
Concerns over rights abuses contributed to Beijing's narrow loss in 1993 to Sydney for the 2000 Games. This is not a government that respects human rights or deserves to be treated as one that does.
The Chinese government says it opposes torture and is working to curb it. Beijing has signed two international human rights treaties, but shows no signs of respecting them. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was told during a recent visit that China would soon ratify one of those treaties, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
But with rare exceptions, abuses go unpunished in China. Torture to extract confessions "remains commonplace," Amnesty said, and continues to be "a major human rights concern."
It's not only the police and prison guards who are guilty of human rights abuses. The report also cites people outside the criminal justice system: business security guards who tortured and killed complaining customers, tax collectors, family planners, neighborhood watch groups and even park attendants who beat a man with an electric baton for walking on the grass.
The Associated Press reports that China's government-controlled media have in recent years been allowed a somewhat freer hand to report on police and official abuses of people not accused of political crimes. But they hardly ever report allegations of abuse in political cases.
The banned Falun Gong spiritual movement says its followers have been widely targeted for abuse and torture in the government's 18-month crackdown on the sect. Falun Gong says 143 practitioners have died. A Hong Kong-based rights group says it has tallied at least 112 deaths.
Amnesty said the government's denials that Falun Gong followers have been abused are unconvincing. Equally unconvincing are apologists' attempts to justify the regime's repression of Falun Gong on the ground that Beijing considers the movement a threat to destabilize the government.
This is a nonviolent, quasi-religious movement that is being subjected to atrociously harsh treatment. No democratic government would dream of abusing a religious group in this way.
The Olympic movement was besmirched when Hitler was allowed to stage the 1936 games. The United States and dozens of other Western countries boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. To allow China, with its blatant human-rights violations, to hold the Olympics would be another travesty.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
Frank Bridgewater, Acting Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
