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January 28th,
2010 - Secret Detention May Amount to Crime Against Humanity: UN Experts |
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Secret Detention May Amount
to Crime Against Humanity: UN Experts From Agence France Presse January 28, 2010 Geneva - UN human rights
experts warned in a report on Wednesday that "widespread and
systematic" secret detention of terror suspects was continuing and could
pave the way for charges of crimes against humanity. The report listed 66
countries that have allegedly been involved in secret detentions - from
Ethiopia to Romania, from Kosovo to Pakistan - and called on governments to
investigate and prosecute those who ordered such detentions. In their first in-depth
global study on secret detentions, the UN experts said that virtually no
judicial steps had been attempted against the practice despite the
"widespread" manner in which suspects were held in a legal limbo. "Secret detention
continues to be used in the name of countering terrorism around the world"
in spite of international human rights norms, said the study, which is due to
be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in March. "If resorted to in a
widespread and systematic manner, secret detention might reach the threshold
of a crime against humanity," the authors cautioned. The "global war on
terror," which was launched by President George W. Bush's administration
after the September 11 attacks, had "reinvigorated" the use of
secret detentions in an organised manner, they said. The campaign saw the
creation of "a comprehensive and coordinated system of secret detention
of persons suspected of terrorism, involving not only US authorities, but
also other states in almost all regions of the world." The study was compiled by
two independent UN experts on counter-terrorism and torture, as well as UN
panels overseeing arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances. Campaign group Amnesty
International said in a statement that governments must be held to account. "States must act
swiftly to implement the recommendations in this important study, to confront
and end secret detention and the human rights violations it entails and
enables," said Widney Brown, Amnesty's director of international law,
citing torture and unlawful executions. The UN study welcomed
commitments by US President Barack Obama to dismantle and investigate secret
detentions. But the experts also called
for clarification of outstanding issues such as short term CIA holding
facilities and those operated by the military Joint Special Operation
Command. Human rights campaigners say
other countries took advantage of secret detentions to crack down on their
own political opponents or restive ethnic groups. Extraordinary rendition
involved abducting suspects without legal proceedings, and flying them to
foreign countries or secret CIA prisons. Drawing on its own
interviews with former detainees, witnesses, officials and its own analysis
of flight records, as well as published material, the UN study named dozens
of secret detainees - including some alleged to have died in custody. Thailand denied that it had
hosted a secret detention facility for the United States in a response to the
experts, but the study maintained that it was "credible that a CIA black
site" existed there. The study also welcomed a
Lithuanian parliamentary inquiry into similar allegations, which had
concluded that there was no evidence to back them up. However, it stressed that
the findings "in no way constitute the final word on Lithuania's role in
the programme." The UN study also cited
evidence of secret US-run facilities in Romania, Poland, and Kosovo as well
as several in Afghanistan and Iraq, including "Dark Prison" and
"Salt Pit." Accounts by detainees added
weight to claims that Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Pakistan, Ethiopia and
Djibouti were proxy centres where "detainees have been held on the CIA's
behalf," the report added. Copyright © 2010 AFP. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h9u2vL60RC7DXiLs4LuwdjZuCQeA |