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thedrifter
05-06-06, 07:49 AM
Handling of detainees criticized
U.S. says U.N. rules don't apply to war
MATTHEW SCHOFIELD
Knight Ridder

GENEVA - u.n. committee against torture U.S. officials defended the United States on Friday against allegations that it has allowed the torture of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying the United States has an "absolute commitment" to eradicating torture and preventing abuse.

The U.N. Committee Against Torture met the defense with skepticism, accusing American officials of playing word games and of mounting a legalistic defense rather than confronting specific accusations of prisoner abuse.

"There is the rule of law, and the rule of what is right," said committee member Guibril Camara of Senegal.

The U.S. defense and the committee members' comments came during the opening meeting of a two-day hearing on American adherence to the U.N. Convention Against Torture. U.S. officials are expected to return Monday for questions.

The hearing is intended to probe a variety of American activities, including long-standing issues in domestic prisons ranging from the psychological strain to inmates of living on death row to the use of stun guns by guards.

But the meeting quickly focused on interrogation methods that U.S. intelligence agents have used on prisoners taken during the war on terrorism. Those methods have been criticized in the United States and worldwide.

"I want to reiterate the United States government's absolute commitment to upholding our national and international obligations to eradicate torture and to prevent cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment anywhere," State Department legal adviser John Bellinger III said in opening remarks.

Bellinger argued that the American treatment of detainees from Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo fell outside the U.N. Convention Against Torture. He said the U.N. convention was "never intended to apply to armed conflicts" but was aimed at protecting people in "the ordinary domestic legal processes."

Committee Chairman Andreas Mavrommatis of Cyprus said the U.S. deserved praise for its "unique status ... in the field of human rights." But he said photos of American abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq had stunned him.

The panel will issue a report but has no enforcement powers.

Friday's Developments in Iraq

• Arab Shiite Muslim legislators, unhappy that a Kurd may be named Iraq's foreign minister, have proposed creating a ministry that would be responsible for relations with Arab and Muslim countries.

• Three U.S. soldiers were killed Friday when their vehicle was struck by a bomb south of Baghdad, in Babil province.

• The Department of Defense on Friday announced the death of two Marines in Iraq: Capt. Brian Letendre, 27, of Woodbridge, Va., and Cpl. Stephen Bixler, 20, of Suffield, Conn.

• A day after the release of a memo attributed to al-Qaida in Iraq that described a campaign to displace Shiite Muslims from many parts of Iraq, one of the most influential Shiite religious leaders used his Friday sermon to urge the faithful to hold their ground
Knight Ridder, Los Angeles Times

Ellie