UN Human Rights Commissioner forced out

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, blamed 
the Bush administration for forcing her out of the job.

She told reporters in Geneva that she was ready to stay at her post to face 
mounting threats to human rights around the world, but Washington wanted 
her out of the job.

Ms Robinson will be replaced in September by Brazilian UN veteran Sergio 
Vieira de Mello, who is more acceptable to President Bush.

"It has become much more difficult for human rights. I am not somebody to 
just walk away", said Ms Robinson.

"If I had been pressed, I would have stayed, but there seems to have been 
strong resistance from just one country."

The US manoeuvred her out because she had refused to rubber-stamp their 
activities in their "war against terrorism", she declared.

Echoing human rights activists, she criticised Washington's refusal to 
grant prisoner-of-war status to the Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners from 
Afghanistan who are being held at the Guantanamo US military base in Cuba.

She expressed strong concerns about the possible use of US military 
tribunals to try those accused of involvement in the suicide plane attacks 
on New York and Washington, as well as the lengthy detention without trial 
of potential suspects.

"I do appreciate that the US was very traumatised by the attacks of 
September 11 and geared itself for a situation of being at war.

"That meant that it did not put the same emphasis on human rights standards 
and it was my job to say that human rights standards apply even more at 
times like that", she insisted.

Despite the political flak that she had faced, the former Irish President 
said that she was confident that she had strengthened the job of High 
Commissioner during her five years in office.

"When I came in, it was very worrying to see how demoralised and lacking in 
resources and lacking in a sense of vision the office was."

Ms Robinson, who is a law professor, took over from Ecuador's Jose Ayala-
Lasso, who left in 1997 under a hail of criticism from human rights 
organisations who accused him of failing to speak out about abuse.

"The High Commissioner's role is to listen to the victims of abuse, to 
verify what is being said and then speak out for those victims", she said.

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Morning Star, Britain's socialist daily