U.S. Attacks China, Israel for Violations : Human Rights: State Department’s annual survey cites ‘massacre’ in Tian An Men Square and crackdown of Palestinian uprising in Israel.

China and Israel were sharply criticized by the State Department today in its annual human rights report to Congress that also had praise for reforms in Eastern Europe.

The report had harsh words for the Chinese government, citing the “massacre” of hundreds and possibly thousands of pro-democracy protesters in Tian An Men Square and the later execution of at least 20 more pro-democracy activists.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, the report said the human rights situation is “a source of deep concern.” Palestinian Arabs are in the 27th month of an uprising against Israeli control, known as the intifada.

“The human rights situation in the occupied territories remains a source of deep concern to the United States,” it said.

“Overall, there were more Palestinian deaths in 1989 than in 1988. A total of 432 Palestinians were killed in intifada- related violence in 1989, of whom 304 were killed by Israeli security forces and settlers and 128 by other Palestinians.”

It said a total of 13 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed by Palestinians in 1989.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington issued a statement saying, “Israel’s measures have not differed from those applied by other democratic countries when facing violence in the form of riots, armed assaults, murder and terror.” Soldiers who violate regulations are punished, the embassy said.

The Chinese government has denied the Tian An Men Square executions and has never officially acknowledged that any widespread killings occurred when tanks and troops were called in to crush the pro-democracy movement last June.

The harsh words by the State Department Human Rights Bureau were in direct contrast to the much milder language used by the Bush Administration in recent comments on the situation in China.

“The human rights climate in China deteriorated dramatically in 1989,” the State Department report concluded.

“The Beijing massacre,” the report said, “was followed by a drastic, countrywide crackdown on participants, supporters and sympathizers. Thousands were arrested and about a score are known to have been executed following trials which fell far short of international standards.”

Senate Democratic leader George J. Mitchell said the report “is a devastating indictment of human rights in China. It is an equally devastating indictment of the policies of the Bush Administration toward China.”

Mitchell said the report shows that China pursues a policy of violating the rights of its citizens “in a way that should shock the conscience of the world.”

“It does shock the conscience of Americans. Unfortunately, it does not shock the executive branch of the American government,” Mitchell said.

Elsewhere, the report said 1989 “may well go down in history books as a watershed year regarding the worldwide cause of human rights,” particularly in Eastern Europe.

Regarding the Soviet Union, the report commented, “Though reformers strengthened their hold on the top echelon of the Soviet government, ‘new thinking’ has failed to penetrate many parts of the Soviet bureaucracy.”

The report said that “the absence of a legal tradition and of legal institutions empowered to protect the rights of individuals add to the (Soviet) leadership’s difficulty in getting its reform policies fully enforced.”