US denies torture claims

2006-05-05 18:28

Geneva - The United States launched an emphatic defence of its record on preventing torture and abuse on Friday.

The United Nations' top anti-torture body has opened its first public examination of that record since US President George W Bush unleashed his "war on terror".

US state department's assistant secretary for human rights and labour, Barry Lowenkron, said: "US criminal law and treaty obligations prohibit torture and the United States will not engage in it or condone it anywhere."

He said Washington was committed to eradicating torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment: "This is not just a legal obligation. We are fulfilling a higher moral obligation which our nation has embraced since its earliest days."

US officials, however, also highlighted their legal reservations about the reach of the international convention against torture, overseen by the UN committee.

The US insists that the treaty did not apply to armed conflicts when the country signed it. In US eyes, this effectively excludes American activities in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the "war on terror", from the convention's scope.

Washington last reviewed before 'war on terror'

Washington was last reviewed by the committee in 2000, before the September 11 2001 attacks, and before the US detained and interrogated suspects in its "war on terror".

Most of the initial 59 written questions submitted by the UN panel questioned these subsequent measures.

US state department legal adviser, John Bellinger, urged the committee not to believe every allegation made about the US' treatment of terror detainees.

He rejected claims that American justice department memos in 2002 and 2004 had limited the scope of what the US regards as torture, saying that "nothing in the memos changes the definition of torture governing US obligations under the convention, from what the United States accepted upon ratification of the convention".

'Treaty does not apply to Afghanistan and Iraq'

Bellinger said Washington felt that the treaty did not apply to Afghanistan, Iraq or the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where many "war on terror" suspects are detained.

Bellinger said: "Regardless of the legal analysis, torture is clearly categorically prohibited under both human rights treaties and the law of armed conflict.".

He said all US citizens and government agencies, including intelligence services or contractors, were covered by federal and international laws outlawing torture and abuse inside and outside the US.

A US defence department official said there was no "widespread or systemic" use of torture or ill-treatment by the US.

The US delegation also denied that "terror" detainees had been transported between countries for interrogation.

The UN committee regularly reviews the record of the 141 countries that have ratified the convention against torture. It has little power.

- AFP