44%: Torturing terrorists OK

2008-06-24 22:37

New York - While 53% of Americans joined respondents around the world in saying torture should be unequivocally abolished, a high percentage favoured an exception when dealing with terrorists, a US survey said on Tuesday.

The survey found 44% of Americans favoured torture in the case of terrorists and 13% said torture should be allowed in general, said a study by WorldPublicOpinion.org, which is associated with the University of Maryland's Programme on International Policy Attitudes.

"Support for making exceptions for torture in the case of terrorists has grown among Americans since 2006, from 36% to 44%, while the majority opposing the use of torture in all cases has fallen slightly, from 58% down to 53%," the survey said.

The survey was made public at UN headquarters in New York on the eve of the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

Bush government criticised

The government of President George W Bush has been strongly criticised for using torture against alleged terrorists detained, in some cases in secrecy, since the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001.

But Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, said: "The idea that torture by governments is basically wrong is widely shared in all corners of the world.

"Even the scenario one hears of terrorists holding information that could save innocent lives is rejected as a justification for torture in most countries."

Kull said such a scenario was exceedingly rare and torture used by governments usually contradicted the will of the people.

A total of 19 063 respondents were polled in 19 countries and most people in 14 countries called for unequivocal rules against torture, even in the case of extracting information from terrorists that could save innocent lives. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA