Are you kidding me?
Who is fighting for the Human Rights of the Journalist who threw the shoes at Bush and is being beaten to a pulp?
The former prime minister John Howard is hardly deserving of a Medal
of Freedom from US President George W Bush, given his record on human rights.
----------
The Greens say former prime minister John Howard is hardly deserving of a Medal
of Freedom from US President George W Bush, given his record on human rights.
Howard has been named as a recipient of the United States Presidential Medal of
Freedom, along with former British prime minister Tony Blair and Colombian
president Alvaro Uribe.
The medal is the highest honour awarded to civilians, described by White House
spokeswoman Dana Perino as being for "efforts to promote democracy, human
rights and peace abroad". Previous recipients include Nelson Mandela and
Aung San Suu Kyi.
"John Howard's record on human rights is blemished, to say the
least," said Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
"We're talking about the Australian prime minister who oversaw the locking
up of children behind razorwire, who stonily ignored the plight of David Hicks
until the eleventh hour of a troubled election campaign, who demonstrated an
appalling lack of compassion during the Tampa
incident, and who disgracefully refused to apologise to the Stolen Generations.
"John Howard is no Nelson Mandela."
Senator Hanson-Young said it was ironic that President Bush was awarding medals
for human rights, peace and security.
"This is the President who will be remembered as the father of Guanatanamo Bay,
who led the Coalition of the Willing into the debacle that was and is Iraq," she
said.
"This Medal of Freedom seems more of a farewell 'pat on the back' from
President Bush to the mates who stood by him, rather than recognition of the
work of a true leader on peace and human rights."
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/...
we in australia know how Howard has been abusing Refugees, and Aborigines