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This series of factual accounts in easy-to-understand language attempts to answer the question:
Included in these pages are:
Acts committed in World War II (a declared war between states) are also excluded.
The information in these pages begins from the end of World War II because a line had to be drawn to keep the work from becoming too great. Some items have a pre-WW2 summary where relevent.
If we live in a "free democracy" we are all responsible for at least knowing what our governments do in our name. As a free people we should know how the companies we buy from behave in the poorer countries. As consumers we should be aware how the goods that we use are produced and what the real price is.
If we still agree with these actions, it is from knowledge rather than ignorance.
These pages feature many injustices done by The West to countless peoples around the world. However, please note that an explanation of an injustice is not a justification for acts of terror done in the name of that injustice.
Criticism of a political policy of a country (or its agents) does not imply hatred or criticism of the people of that country. This is not a racist web site even if it appears as a link in such web sites.
Read the section on the Western Media to find out why your television and newspapers may not be giving you the complete story about world events.
The main information is stored in a searchable database. There are also more general essays about the media, elections, trade, current issues and a special section on the USA and its role in world events. There are also maps and photograph galleries but please note that some of the photographs may be disturbing to view.
All years (from 1945), a single year, or a range of years. Search by victim country (eg Iraq, Vietnam, Palestine, Nicaragua, Algeria, Kenya, etc), region (eg Middle East, Central America, etc), aggressor / perpetrator country (eg USA, UK, France, Israel) or topic (eg Invasion, Support For Dictatorship, Chemical, Occupation, Internal Interference, Bombing, Racial Persecution, Economic Coercion, etc).
The generated pages will be in year order and many feature tables and links to maps and photographs.
"Without any sense of history, we do not understand injustice."
Robert Fisk, UK investigative journalist.
"In the struggle of Good against Evil, it's always people who get killed."
Eduardo Galeano from La Jornada.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"
Mohandas K Gandhi, Indian leader.
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
Arthur James Balfour, UK Foreign Secretary writing in 1917 to the Zionist Federation. The UK was at that time ruling Palestine under a League of Nations mandate. This statement is more commonly known as the Balfour Declaration.
"There is no other way than to transfer the Arabs from here to neighbouring countries; not one village, not one tribe should be left"
Joseph Weitz talking in 1940 Palestine before the creation of the State of Israel.
"no one should be subjected to arbitrary exile; everyone has the right to return to [their] country"
The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights.
"In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy."
David Korten, The Post-Corporate World.
"The free market is 'socialism' for the rich: the public pays the costs and the rich get the benefit - markets for the poor and plenty of state protection for the rich."
Noam Chomsky, USA writer.
"If democracy is ever to be threatened, it will not be by revolutionary groups burning government offices and occupying the broadcasting and newspaper offices of the world. It will come from disenchantment, cynicism and despair caused by the realisation that the New World Order means we are all to be managed and not represented."
Tony Benn, UK politician.
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence, clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary."
H L Mencken, 1920.
"The Soviet Union will not deliberately start general war or even limited war in Europe. Soviet foreign policy has been cautious and realistic [and has] continued to make contacts in all fields with the West and to maintain a limited but increasing political dialogue with NATO powers."
UK Foreign Office secret document from 1968, declassified in 1999.
"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervour - with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil... to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant funds demanded."
General Douglas MacArthur, USA (1957).
"I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas... I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes... It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gases; gases can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected."
Winston Churchill, UK Secretary of State at the War Office, when approached by the UK Royal Air Force for permission to use poison gas "against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment" in Iraq, 1919.
"Lasting peace and freedom can be achieved only with legality, justice, respect for diversity, defence of human rights and measured and fair responses."
Baltesar Garzón, Spanish judge.
Human Rights Watch
Check how human rights are violated around the world from this New York based site.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International watch and react to human rights abuses around the world. There are hundreds of reports arranged by continent, region and country. Individuals can help in specific cases.
ZNet Magazine
A huge collection of articles with excellent coverage of world events by investigative journalists from all over the world. The type of information the mainstream media should be giving out but often fail to.
Multinational Monitor
How business interests affect people around the world. Looks at the effects on populations of mining and oil exploration, biological technology, pollution, child labour, and slave labour.
Freedom
Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War: An interesting collection of information covering the 20th Century.
One World
Detailed news from around the world with full and clear analysis. Articles look at commercial activities that affect people and the environment.
F.A.I.R.
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. This site examines bias in the mainstream media of the USA and the reasons behind it.
World Political Leaders (1945 - 2000)
A reference for selected countries. The who and the where.
New Internationalist
UK magazine looking at world affairs with background information. Excellent articles from the world's investigative writers.
AlterNet
A alternative media resource from the USA.
Reuters
News feeds from around the world.
European Human Rights Centre
Human rights around the world.