Monday, May 08, 2006

White House tells UN torture panel of 29 deaths in custody

The Herald

All US government employees are prohibited from torturing detainees, White House staff told a UN panel questioning US compliance with international human rights law.
The US delegation, making its first appearance before the UN Committee Against Torture in six years, addressed of issues ranging from Washington's interpretation of the absolute ban on torture to its interrogation methods in prisons such as Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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Charles Stimson, the US deputy assistant secretary of defence, said the United States had failed in its duty to protect detainees in Iraq.
"We feel terrible about what happened to these Iraqi detainees," Stimson said. "We didn't do that and that was wrong."

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The US delegation told the committee that mistakes had occurred in the US treatment of detainees in the war against terror, and that 29 detainees had died in US facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan from what appeared to be abuse or other violations of US law.

Andreas Mavrommatis, who chaired the session, said the US investigations would be more convincing if they were conducted by an independent judge or lawyer.

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