ABC's next "Q and A" on Monday 31st March will have Kenneth Roth, director of Human Rights Watch, as one of its guests. Consider directing questions to the panel, particularly Mr Roth. Since Q and A have a perspective that often screens out non-mainstream views, feel free to post your questions to candobetter.net as well.
This is the link to the guest list currently on the Q and A webpage: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/coming_up.htm#LUCY_SIEGLE
You can pose questions to guests via this QandA page
Kenneth Roth and HRW have taken a very partisan stand on Syria. They give credence to the claims of people who damn the government, and by implication, support the armed groups. Their reports bolster the case for western military action against Syria. For example, this latest report focuses on barrel bombing by the government and the word 'terror' is used in regard to government actions. http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/03/24/syria-unlawful-air-attacks-terrorize-aleppo
We have not been able to find any HRW condemnation of recent attacks by extremist groups on the town of Kessab, a mostly Armenian town, near the Turkish border. http://www.armenianweekly.com/2014/03/23/kessab/
We have also not been able to find HRW condemnation of the massacres in Adra
Human Rights Watch was very very quick to claim that the Syrian government was responsible for the sarin gas attack in Damascus. This page on HRW website gives a clear view of the NGO's stand.
For an update on the investigations into the sarin gas attack, this site presents and carefully considers theories of different experts: Who attacked Ghouta?
Kenneth Roth, the Director of Human Rights Watch is married to Dr Annie Sparrow, an Australian doctor who has been interviewed on ABC Radio National's "Life Matters" about Syria. In that interview, like HRW, she presented the claims of people in refugee camps who damn the government as fact and did not present other views or stories. Lifematters on Syria
There is much evidence that the big International Aid organisations, as they become well-financed corporations, develop the political biases of corporations towards the sources of their income. Most of these sources are from economic bastions aligned with the west. The donation of $100m by George Soros is an indication that HRW are in the corporate league: "George Soros to Give $100 million to Human Rights Watch." Although Soros is often portrayed as a reformed financial speculator, it seems that his imagination does not go beyond mainstream paradigms. Notably, he supports one of the two major political parties in the United States. See George Soros's page.
Add comment