‘We don’t need to justify ourselves to US’
By Jean Christou
JUSTICE Minister Doros Theodorou has ordered police chiefs not to reply to questionnaires from the US embassy unless they are objective and take into account the facts.
The move came after US State Department report on Human Rights, published last week criticised the police over various alleged abuses. Outraged police bosses said on Wednesday the report was full of inaccuracies, was misleading and had left out details of progress in certain areas.
New information which had been passed on to the American authorities, such as updates on trafficking in women, a pet subject of the US, was also omitted, they said.
Theodorou said yesterday there was absolutely no reason to give explanations to the US administration on the human rights` situation in Cyprus, especially when the report gave the impression that its content was already predetermined.
“It is clear that the State Department report refers to general accusations and in some cases, without any proof whatsoever, does not refer to facts,” said Theodorou.
He said the report disregarded facts which the police had responded to in a US embassy questionnaire on certain issues. The updates were not included in the report.
The police had only agreed to reply to the questionnaire because they operate with “full transparency”.
“We have nothing to hide or with regard to the situation on human rights in Cyprus on the part of the police,” Theodorou said.
He said respect for human rights in Cyprus was high. “We have no reason to feel we are lagging behind other countries on this issue and that is the reason we decided to answer the questionnaire without hesitation,” he added.
In addition, the questionnaires were long and took up a lot of time, Theodorou said.
“I am sorry to point out that the US did not respect at all the work carried out on the part of the police”, he added.
“The impression given by the report is that what was written had already been decided. Under these circumstances, I don’t see why we should reply to such questionnaires any more. For this reason, my decision is, and I have instructed the police to this effect, not to reply to these questionnaires, unless we are given clear indications that they will be objective and that they will take into consideration the facts and the police replies.”
If not, there was no reason to hand over information on human rights in Cyprus to the US in the future, Theodorou added.
“I regret the stance of the US authorities and of their embassy here because I assume that the drafting of the report was based on comments and information provided by the US embassy. I am sorry to say that this does not show an objective stance, nor an impartial attitude.”
Two words for the United States on this issue...Rodney King.
