South African government Wednesday dismissed the 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices compiled by the United States' State Department as presumptuous in the extreme regarding South Africa.

Government communications (GCIS) head Joel Netshitenzhe told media after Cabinet's fortnightly meeting at Tuynhuys "the South African government wishes to emphasize that the best judge with regard to human rights in our country are the South African peoplethemselves."

"Government therefore considers it presumptuous in the extreme for anyone to use a collation of news reports (some of them inaccurate); generalizations alleging rape and torture by police; ill-informed cultural stereotypes, including reference to 'bride prices' (lobola) and other such episodes as a basis for conclusions about 'serious problems' with regard to human rights in our country," Netshitenzhe said.

Jody Kollapen, chairman for the Human Rights Commission, said on Tuesday that South Africa was doing well in its efforts to advance human rights, but this did not mean there were no challenges still facing the country.

"We are doing pretty well, and the criticism is in broad terms about issues we have been dealing with as a country," he said.

Kollapen said there were other significant indicators by which to judge a country's human-rights record.

But the US embassy in Pretoria defended the report on Monday, saying it was accurate and that the South African and US governments could disagree on its contents.

The Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2004, published by the US state department's bureau of democracy, human rights and labor, says members of South Africa's "security forces committed serious human-rights abuses," that deaths in police custody were a "serious problem," and the judiciary was overburdened and that xenophobia continued to be an issue.

The report goes on to say, "violence against women and childrenremained serious problems, and discrimination against women and persons with disabilities also remained problems."

However, the report says that South Africa generally respects the human rights of its citizens, and that it has already taken action against some of those responsible for human-rights abuses.

Judy Moon, spokeswoman for the US embassy in South Africa, saidthe report was a snapshot of South Africa's situation at a particular time and did not mean the South African government was not working to improve the situation.

Source: Xinhua