us admits to torturing prisoners

US admits torturing prisoners

26jun05
GENEVA: Washington has for the first time acknowledged to the UN that prisoners were tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq, a UN source said.

The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted to the UN Committee Against Torture, said a member of the 10-person panel, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They are no longer trying to duck this and have respected their obligation to inform the UN," the committee member said. "They will have to explain themselves. Nothing should be kept in the dark."

Australian David Hicks is among hundreds of foreign terror suspects being held at Guantanamo in Cuba.

The UN said it was the first time it had received such a frank admission of torture from the US.

The committee, which monitors respect for the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, is gathering information from the US ahead of hearings in May.

The US has signed up to the convention. The document from Washington will not be made formally public until the hearings.

"They said it was a question of isolated cases, that there was nothing systematic and that the guilty were in the process of being punished," the committee member said.

The report said the torturers were low-ranking soldiers and their acts were not approved by their superiors.

Mistreated detainees have died in the detention centres. Scores of US military personnel have been investigated, and several tried and convicted, for abuse.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said UN human rights experts should be allowed into Guantanamo.

"The Secretary-General hopes that this matter can be resolved to allow the experts full access to wherever they need to go," a spokeswoman for Mr Annan said.

The only independent body allowed in is the Red Cross. It usually keeps its findings confidential.

Mr Annan's call came a day after four top UN human rights experts slammed Washington for not opening the prison to inspection.

source