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Fredrik Reinfeldt Swedish Prime Minister, Current EU Prez Tough On Human Rights Issues
Fredrik Reinfeldt, Sweden’s Prime Minister and the current president of the European Union has taken positions that reflect his concern for the individual’s human rights. He has roundly denounced a variety of judicial actions by governments in Ossetia, Azerbaijan and China.Reinfeldt recently criticized the authorities in South Ossetia, a country backed by Russia, for its detention of teenagers — ages 14 through 17. The teens have been held since November 4, by South Ossetian authorities who allege they are being detained for illegally crossing the de facto border armed with grenades and other explosive materials.
During the past month more than 25 Georgians have been briefly detained in South Ossetia and Abkhazia for border violations. These actions are straining tempers which flared over a year when South Ossetia was the focus of a five-day war between Russia and Georgia.
All except the teenagers have been quickly released. South Ossetia says the Red Cross has been given access to the teenagers. As representative of the EU and Sweden, Reinfeldt urges the Ossetians to release the teens.
The European Union president has also denounced the Azerbaijan court’s decision in the case of two bloggers.
On Wednesday, November 11, 2009 Emin Milli received a sentence of 2 years 6 months and Adnan Hajizade, was sentenced to two years for their part in a fight in a restaurant last July. Some in Azerbaijan believe the young activists were arrested for their activism.
Even the EU presidency states its regret “the trial proceedings did not reflect due process and believes that the court decision may further undermine the freedom of expression” in Azerbaijan.
Prime Minister/President Reinfeldt has also spoken against the recent execution in China of nine people for their participation in the ethnic riots in Xinjiang last July. That’s when the Uighurs attacked majority Han Chinese in regional capital Urumqi after taking to the streets to protest against attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in southern China in June that left two Uighurs dead. The area is the Chinese-controlled far western majority Muslim region.
Reinfeldt condemned the executions calling on China to abolish the death penalty. it was concerned about the way the trials were carried out.
“The EU calls on China to review urgently the cases of those who remain under sentence of death for their alleged involvement in this year’s unrest and for their sentences to be commuted.”
The Chinese foreign ministry responded with a MYOB statement. (Mind Your Own Business). In his comments Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang charged the European Union was interfering in China’s internal affairs.
“We are extremely dissatisfied,”
Qin said in reference to the remarks by Reinfeldt. The full statement and the news conference in its entirety can be found on the ministry’s website (www.mfa.gov.cn).
China is a country ruled by laws, carried out the trials properly, and no outsider has a right to get involved, he said.
Qin said China
“demands the European side stop making the same mistakes again and again, earnestly respect the principles of equality and mutual respect, and do more to benefit the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations,”
We’re wondering if the EU Presidency will be speaking out against incidents of injustice, human rights violations here in the good old U.S. of A, Incidents like those reports describing law enforcement personnel tazing defenseless elderly and the young; incidents where police attack citizens who generally pose no serious life ending threat to police …Hmmmmm gives you something to think about.
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