Speak No Evil

By J.F.O. McAllister/Washington

From the first days after Kuwait's liberation, journalists and human-rights groups have chronicled major violations -- detentions, beatings, torture, summary executions -- committed by Kuwaiti armed forces and vigilantes seeking revenge against those suspected of collaborating with the Iraqis. But the Bush Administration, which loudly denounced Iraqi atrocities in occupied Kuwait, has consistently played down charges of abuses by the gulf state the U.S. fought to liberate. Items:

-- On March 8, State Department deputy spokesman Richard Boucher was asked about Kuwaiti mistreatment of Palestinians. "There are reports of people getting a hard time at checkpoints," he said. "We do not have information on beatings and killings."

-- The following day, one week after reopening the U.S. embassy in Kuwait City, Ambassador Edward Gnehm was asked about human-rights abuses. "We have not had nearly the difficulties that people anticipated," he said.

-- After Amnesty International reported on April 18 that scores of Kuwaiti residents had been arbitrarily arrested, "many brutally tortured by Kuwaiti armed forces and members of 'resistance' groups," the State Department replied that "the situation by most accounts in Kuwait is very much improved over what existed some weeks ago" -- thus contradicting its earlier upbeat assessments. State said it was continuing "to discuss with the Kuwaiti authorities all reports of abuses," but did not say whether it considered any of those reports to be true.

-- Visiting Kuwait on April 22, Secretary of State James Baker confirmed human-rights violations there -- indirectly."The Crown Prince made clear that there were human-rights abuses following the early days of the liberation," said Baker. He did not publicly condemn those violations on behalf of the U.S. A month later, human-rights workers said they had evidence of continuing abuses, many committed by Kuwaiti officials.

-- After last week's summary trial of suspected collaborators, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler consulted Ambassador Gnehm and chose to emphasize the positive. She said the U.S. embassy had urged the Kuwaiti government "to have open trials; they were open. We also urged that the defendants have a right to counsel; they did." But she ignored the fact that lawyers had not met their clients, saw none of the prosecution's evidence and could not cross-examine witnesses. Under questioning, she acknowledged "glitches" in the trials. Only later did the State Department issue a mild communique saying the U.S. "was concerned by allegations that due process may not have been fully observed."