UK Lawmakers Accuse U.S. of Grave Rights Violations

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Fri, 25 Mar 2005 07:33:00 -0500

UK Lawmakers Accuse U.S. of Grave Rights Violations

 

 

 

UK Lawmakers Accuse U.S. of Grave Rights Violations

 

http://reuters.myway.com//article/20050325/2005-03-25T002441Z_01_L249827_RTRIDST\

_0_INTERNATIONAL-RIGHTS-BRITAIN-USA-DC.html

 

Mar 24, 7:24 PM (ET)

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States has committed " grave violations

of human rights " against prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and

Iraq, the Foreign Affairs Committee of Britain's parliament said in a

report on Friday.

 

The report also called on the British government to make clear whether

it uses intelligence passed on by other countries that may have been

gathered by torturing suspects.

 

" We conclude that United States personnel appear to have committed

grave violations of human rights of persons held in detention in

various facilities in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan, " the

committee wrote in its influential annual report on human rights.

 

" We recommend that the government make it clear to the United States

administration, both in public and private, that such treatment of

detainees is unacceptable. "

 

The committee said it was " surprising and unsettling " that the

government had twice failed to answer whether London receives

information extracted under torture by a third country.

 

" The arguments for evaluating information which purports to give

details of, for example, an impending terrorist attack, whatever its

provenance, are compelling, " the committee said.

 

" We further conclude, however, that to operate a general policy of use

of information extracted under torture would be to condone and even to

encourage torture by repressive states. "

 

The treatment of prisoners at the U.S. military camp at Guantanamo

Bay, Cuba, and the rising threat from terrorism has sparked a heated

debate in Britain about torture.

 

Human rights groups have criticized conditions at the camp and

interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation or subjecting

detainees to extreme temperatures, some of which they say are akin to

torture.

 

The committee also called for better training of British troops on the

treatment of prisoners to prevent further abuses of inmates like those

seen in Iraq since the conflict.

 

Four British soldiers were convicted of abuse last month and other

cases are ongoing, although there has been no suggestion that Britain

authorized the sort of aggressive interrogations used by the Americans.

 

Lawmakers also waded into the row over China's arms embargo, opposing

the lifting of the European Union's ban on arms sales.

 

" The raising of the EU arms embargo on China would send the wrong

signal at this time, in the absence of strong undertakings from the

Chinese government to address human rights issues, " the report said.

 

The EU, keen to boost trade and diplomatic ties with China, agreed

last year to aim to lift the ban by the end of June. It was imposed

after the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests.

 

But China's passing of a law last week granting itself the right to

use force to curtail independence moves by Taiwan has made countries

including Britain more wary of the move, which Washington fears would

give China access to advanced weaponry.