Pushker Kharecha said that while the U.S. government intended to liberate the people of Iraq, the current occupation is actually denying them basic human rights.

"We're concerned about the full protection that Iraqi people are entitled to -- things like health care, education, employment and fresh water. It's a fact that all of these human rights have been violated," he said.

Kharecha (graduate-earth sciences) and about 20 others gathered at the Allen Street gates last night at a candlelight vigil sponsored by Amnesty International to memorialize those who lost their lives since the beginning of the war.

The group stood in a circle holding candles and reflecting on the lost lives of both U.S. military members and Iraqi civilians.

"Since we are here and not over there, sometimes we have a collective tendency to forget, but the situation is still ongoing," Maya Tessema, local co-coordinator of Amnesty International, said. "There are many people who are being abused, tortured and killed as a result of this war."

While Amnesty International is not opposed to the war, Kharecha said the group is concerned with acts that have resulted in a loss of fundamental human rights, such as the torture of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib and the high number of Iraqi civilian deaths.

Eric Rossi (graduate-physics) a member of Amnesty International, said the situation in Iraq might have been clouded by the different motives the U.S. government used to go to war.

"In the rush leading up to the war and the aftermath, there is an implication that [Iraqis] must just be so much better off without Saddam," Rossi said. "It overshadowed the fact that we are actually hurting a lot of people by being there."

Kharecha said he is concerned with the lack of thorough, independent, non-governmental investigation into these problems. He said the U.S. government has done a "masterful" job of keeping bad news about Afghanistan and Iraq out of the headlines.

"Human rights abuses are ongoing, partly because there hasn't been accountability for torture and other human rights abuses," he said, adding that the government made the abuse in Abu Ghraib seem like an isolated situation.

"We believe that only an informed public can hold its government accountable for human rights activities," Kharecha said.

Brenda Black, a State College resident in Amnesty International, said she felt that the public does not see the whole picture in Iraq.

"I'm not sure that what's reported to us is accurate," Black said. "I think a lot of the information we get is limited."

Kharecha said the group's members use information from Amnesty International's official Web site, since it comes directly from human rights activists, whom he said are a more reliable source than the media.

"Governments like our own, unfortunately, deliberately suppress that information," Kharecha said. "Let's remember the suffering of the Iraqis and press our government to ensure the human rights of the Iraqis, who we are supposedly liberating."