*EPF110 05/17/2004
Report Tells Story of U.S. Efforts to Support Human Rights
(Interview with Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner) (1260)

The State Department's new report on U.S. support for human rights around the world provides a comprehensive description of U.S. activities in countries where there are judicial killings, torture, or other serious violations of human rights, says a top State Department official.

Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Lorne Craner says the report, "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2003-2004," released May 17, "tells the story -- in one place -- of what we're trying to do to advance human rights and democracy overseas."

Assistant Secretary Craner made his comments in an interview with Washington File staff writer Alexandra Abboud, which can be found at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/shrd/2003

Following is a transcript of the interview:

Question: This is the second annual Supporting Human Rights and Democracy report. How did this report come about?

Secretary Craner: There was a desire to see what the U.S. was doing to fix the human rights violations outlined in the Human Rights Country Reports that we put out every year.

People on Capitol Hill receive these scattered reports of a project we're doing in Kyrgyzstan or Burma or a new policy on Zimbabwe to remedy human rights problems, but they've never gotten it all in one comprehensive report. We knew it would be a good idea for the U.S. government to tell the story -- in one place -- of what we're trying to do to advance human rights and democracy overseas.

Q: Supporting Human Rights covers approximately 100 countries. What are the criteria for selecting the countries that appear in this report?

Secretary Craner: The criteria laid out by Congress are that we would report on our human rights strategy and activities in countries where there were extra judicial killings, torture, or other serious violations of human rights. This year we added about four or five countries and we dropped about a half a dozen out of the report.

Q: How is the information for these reports collected for each country?

Secretary Craner: We collected the information here in the U.S. in partnership with our embassies worldwide, and they came back with programming and policies they had been working on in their countries. They told us how they are going to fix the problems in their countries that were outlined in the annual Human Rights Reports and also told us about the diplomatic efforts to remedy human rights abuses.

Q: How do you measure the success of U.S. efforts in this endeavor to promote human rights and democracy?

Secretary Craner: Ultimately the measure of success will be this report getting smaller and smaller in terms of countries that are violators of the criteria described above. But over time, you can see a difference.

We did a project recently, for example, in Kyrgyzstan where there had only ever been one printing press. We funded the operation of another printing press there so that newspapers that were once unable to print day by day -- due to censorship and lacks of facilities -- are now able to print much more often, basically every day now.

In Zimbabwe, we worked for democratic improvements in the capabilities of the opposition political parties there. In China we're working for more rule of law in general but especially in village elections, et cetera.

So in each country you can look and see things that you want to have happen, problems that you've talked about in the Human Rights Country Reports, and then you can focus your aid and your diplomatic efforts at those problems to try and make sure that they get better and that they're not problems anymore.

But clearly, if you look at the past 25 years of the United States working on issues of human rights and democracy, you have people all over the world -- in a places like Serbia and Georgia or in places like Nicaragua or South Korea, that 25 years ago were living in a dictatorship or authoritarian regime.

And if you go to the people that brought change to those countries, to the new Georgian president, to Serbian students or to the president of Nicaragua today and say "Was what the U.S. did helpful?" They will often tell you, "My country would not be a democracy if the U.S. hadn't helped." So that, I think, is a measure of success.

Q: How is the report used overseas?

Secretary Craner: There's a great audience for both this report and the Country Reports among nongovernmental groups and people in all of these countries.

For example, we took a chapter of Supporting Human Rights and Democracy and translated it into Arabic. I was in Algeria about two months ago, and we took that chapter that we had printed up, translated into Arabic, and brought it to a reception we were having at the embassy. It talks about what we're trying to do to improve things in the Middle East. People were very interested because they've heard the President and the Secretary of State talk about trying to improve democracy and human rights in the Middle East and now they're able to read about exactly how we're trying to do that.

The governments read both of these reports much more intensely than I ever expected before I came to this job. I have had prime ministers and presidents wave these reports in my face as having clearly read them. And I think that's very, very helpful.

Q: Could you give some examples of U.S. activities to support human rights and democracy covered in your report?

Secretary Craner: Georgia, for example, is a country where for eight years we were trying to persuade the government to be more open, to be more democratic. At the same time we were helping groups and individuals who were out of government who wanted to make their country more democratic.

One of those men is the current president of Georgia, and we worked with all the democratic political parties in that country to increase their proficiency and their political capabilities, especially on the grassroots level. I think they were able to have a lot of grassroots support that manifested itself both during the election and then after the election.

We have another effort going in Kyrgyzstan called Democracy Centers. All over Kyrgyzstan we're funding rooms literally where people can come to talk about these issues and can also pick up a bulletin that provides news from overseas from the BBC, Radio Free America or Radio Free Europe, CBS or CNN.

These are very, very popular in that country because people don't have a sense of what's going on in the outside world. That bulletin will also include foreign news reports about Kyrgyzstan, so Kyrgyz get the opportunity -- which clearly they didn't have just a couple of years ago -- to know what's going on in other countries, how other countries are developing their democracies, and also how their own country is viewed by people overseas.

So we're working in these countries to disseminate more information, and provide more capability for those who support issues of democracy and human rights.

Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Secretary Craner: I think this report is very valuable because it brings together in one place exactly what the U.S. is trying to do not only diplomatically but also in terms of actually going out and helping people who want to advance democracy in their countries.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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