Amnesty: Governments feeding xenophobia

LONDON, May 23 (UPI) -- The rights group Amnesty International's annual report released in London Wednesday split blame for world misery and terror among militants and governments.

"Through short-sighted, fear-mongering and divisive policies, governments are undermining the rule of law and human rights, feeding racism and xenophobia, dividing communities, intensifying inequalities and sowing the seeds for more violence and conflict," said Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty International.

The report claimed the divide between Muslims and non-Muslims deepened in the past year "fuelled by discriminatory counter-terrorism strategies in western countries."

Khan also criticized international response to dissenters who use the Internet to publish their messages and how Internet "companies colluded with governments to restrict access to information on-line in countries such as China, Iran, Syria, Vietnam and Belarus."

Amnesty specifically criticized the United States, saying it "treated the world as one giant battlefield for its 'war on terror,' kidnapping, arresting, arbitrarily detaining, torturing and transferring suspects from one secret prison to another across the world with impunity" as part of what the Bush administration called extraordinary rendition.