Eritrea rejects U.S. human rights accusations

ASMARA (Reuters) - Eritrea on Saturday rejected accusations by the U.S. State Department of gross human rights violations in the Red Sea state, saying Washington should apply the same standards to itself.

Human rights defenders routinely label Eritrea one of Africa's worst offenders, accusing it of using torture, killing and illegal imprisonment inside the country.

"The politically motivated report is replete ... with unsubstantiated rumors, innuendos, exaggerations and sheer fabrications," Eritrea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, referring to the annual U.S. report.

"The curious feature ... is that it does not even pretend to apply the same benchmarks ... to examine and pass judgment on the human rights practices of the United States government itself," the statement said.

Relations between Washington and Asmara have soured as Eritrea accuses the United States of siding with Ethiopia in a border dispute. Asmara and Addis Ababa fought a 1998-2000 war over their 1000-km (620-mile) frontier.

The U.S. State Department said in its 2007 world human rights report that Eritrea continued to commit "numerous serious abuses".

It said President Isaias Afwerki's government used the border stalemate with Ethiopia to clamp down on dissent and keep much of the nation's youth in the military. Eritrea denies that.