GENEVA - The UN torture investigator said Tuesday that U.S. officials are refusing him access to prisons in Iraq, even though he has received credible reports conditions have improved.
Manfred Nowak, one of the global body's human rights experts, said Iraqi officials agreed in principle that he can visit the country later this year. British officials have also agreed to let him visit detainees held by their forces, he said.
"The U.K. said yes, the U.S. said no," Nowak said in Geneva, adding he is still hoping to win approval for a visit to U.S.-run facilities before deciding whether to travel to Iraq.
Nowak said he met Tuesday with Iraq's deputy minister for human rights, Hussein Jasim Al-Zuhairi, who repeated his country's invitation for the UN expert to visit.
But he was told by U.S. officials their prisons in Iraq are not subject to international human rights law because of the armed conflict in the country and as such are outside his remit as a torture investigator.
Nowak wants unrestricted access to detainees, including the right to interview them in private.
A spokesman at the U.S. State Department in Washington declined official comment. But a State Department official familiar with the case said the United States refused Nowak's request for operational reasons. The official, who asked not to be named, said only the International Committee of the Red Cross has been granted full access to all of the several thousand detainees under U.S. control.
He added Washington considers the neutral body to be the most appropriate group to conduct such visits and extending access to other groups or individuals is not feasible because of the security situation in Iraq.
Nowak said recent reports received by his office indicate many detainees would prefer to stay in U.S.-run prisons, rather than be transferred to Iraqi facilities.
"That's why I am also a little astonished that the U.S. government is not willing to grant me access because it might even be in their interest," Nowak said.
Images of prisoner abuse at the U.S.-run detention facility Abu Ghraib drew international criticism of the way U.S. forces treated detainees. The prison was later closed and transferred to Iraqi control. Nowak said the situation has reportedly improved since.
But the Austrian law professor, who compiles reports for the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, said he wants to examine the current detention conditions in Iraq for himself.
...
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2008/03/11/4975636-ap.html
Stumble It!