Nicaragua: rights body 'lies'

Nicaragua's foreign minister has accused the continent's human rights body of undermining its claimed neutrality and violating the regional bloc's charter with a “biased and politicised” report on months of violent anti-government protests.

Minister for International Policy and Affairs Siddharta Marin's office denounced the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) final report in a statement late on Saturday night. It said the commission, a wing of the Washington DC-based Organisation of American States (OAS), had joined a “political and media campaign of lies, misrepresentation, epithets and stigmatization” against Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government.

The statement accused the IACHR of ignoring documentary evidence presented by the government in favour of “audio-visual information and testimonies edited and manipulated by the perpetrators” of the “attempted coup.”

The ministry said the commission “used biased criteria” and avoided passing judgement on “acts of violence and crimes perpetrated by 'peaceful' proponents.”

It insisted protesters had “committed terrorist acts, they burned human beings alive, they tortured and committed abuses against government supporters, kidnapped hundreds of Central American truck drivers along with the civilian population, who were unable to leave their homes and work freely.”

And the statement went further, alleging the IACHR's preliminary report earlier this year “spread the lies of the authors, actors and executors of the Coup d’état attempt” and justified the riots to the “international community.”

Riots broke out in April over changes to the social security system introduced to stave off a deficit. The government had rejected a package of “reforms” proposed by an International Monetary Fund mission in February in favour of an alternative programme backed by trade unions – but not by business leaders.

On a visit to London at the end of May, Mr Marin expressed great optimism over the impending IACHR mission and talks with the opposition, calling it a “a historic opportunity to strengthen our democracy.” He also played down comparisons with last year's four months of regime-change riots in ally Venezuela, which left at least 124 people dead.

But roadblocks and university occupations, while on June 7 OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro met leaders of the anti-government students movement and denounced state “repression.”

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