U.N. denounces secret detention centers

2 hours, 10 minutes ago

GENEVA - The top U.N. human rights official expressed concerns Friday about reports of secret detention centers for terrorist suspects, warning governments to abide by the law or risk creating an environment ripe for abuses.

European investigators and human rights groups have accused European nations of letting the CIA abduct and transport terror suspects to secret detention facilities in Europe and to locations elsewhere where they might have faced torture. Governments have largely denied the accusations.

"The reported existence of secret detention centers where suspects are held incommunicado is ... of grave concern," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said in a clear reference to the allegations of U.S. abuses. She did not, however, specifically name the United States.

The U.S. delegation responded by telling the 47-nation council that Washington's policy is to treat captured combatants humanely.

John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in New York, strongly criticized Arbour. He said rather than singling out the United States or Israel, she should have focused instead on human rights problems in North Korea, Iran, Burma and Zimbabwe.

"It's a question of what the appropriate focus of the top U.N. human rights official should be, and I think her focus is misplaced," he said.

Arbour, in a speech to the new U.N. Human Rights Council, discussed the war against terrorism in the first part of her speech. But she also cited reports of "dire conditions in labor camps, grave food shortages and a lack of the most basic freedoms" in North Korea and a "marked worsening of the humanitarian situation" in Burma, or Myanmar.

She also named a number of problem countries. The only time she named the United States was to praise "several courts" for assuming "an assertive role in combating impunity and protecting a range of human rights."

The United States has been widely criticized by human rights groups for detaining hundreds of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for years without charging them or providing them with access to courts.

But Ambassador Warren W. Tichenor, who heads the U.S. delegation to the Human Rights Council, said the United States adheres to its "absolute commitment to uphold our national and international obligations to eradicate torture and to prevent cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment worldwide."

Arbour urged all countries to disclose and prosecute any alleged abuses of human rights in the fight against terrorism.

"It is vital that at all times governments anchor in law their response to terrorism," she said.

While Arbour did not name Israel in her speech, she did refer to the "occupied Palestinian territories."

"Only a political solution to this long festering conflict will bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and loss of life," she said. "But pending that, compliance by all duty bearers with their responsibilities under international humanitarian and human rights law - at the moment sorely lacking - is essential and not for compromise."

Bolton said the U.S. decision against seeking a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council was "vindicated by speeches like this."

"What we wanted is a new beginning at the opening session of the Human Rights (Council), and her comments strike me as business as usual," he said.

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Associated Press correspondent Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from New York.

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