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UN urges US to close "secret prisons", Guantanamo
GENEVA, May 19 (Reuters) - The United Nations committee against torture told the United States on Friday it should close any secret prisons abroad and the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba, saying they violated international law.
The 10 independent experts, who examined the U.S. record at home and abroad, also urged President George W. Bush's administration to "rescind any interrogation technique" that constituted torture or cruel treatment, citing use of dogs to terrify detainees.
The United States "should ensure that no one is detained in any secret detention facility under its de facto effective control" and "investigate and disclose the existence of any such facilities," said the committee, which has moral authority but no legal power to enforce its recommendations.
"Detaining persons in such conditions constitutes, per se, a violation of the Convention," said the committee which examines compliance with the U.N. Convention against Torture, or other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The United States is holding hundreds of terrorism suspects, most arrested since Al Qaeda's Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, at its prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay. It refuses to comment on allegations of secret jails.
Washington, which sent 30 senior officials to Geneva in early May for the committee's hearings, defended its treatment of foreign terrorism suspects held abroad, saying there had been "relatively few actual cases of abuse".
Human rights groups have accused the United States of mistreating detainees through cruel interrogation methods including "water-boarding"', a form of mock drowning.
In its findings, the committee voiced concern at "reliable reports of acts of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" by U.S. military or civilian personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"The state party (the United States) should take immediate measures to eradicate all forms of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by its military or civilian personnel ... and should promptly and thoroughly investigate such acts and prosecute all those responsible...," it said.
All detainees should be registered and a record kept of the time and place of interrogations, according to the body which told the United States that it should report back in a year.
Four prisoners attempt suicide at Guantanamo camp
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, May 18 (Reuters) - Four Guantanamo prisoners tried to commit suicide on Thursday and several others attacked guards who rushed in to halt one of the attempts, a camp spokesman said. Three took overdoses of prescription medicine they had apparently been hoarding, and the fourth tried to hang himself, said Cmdr. Robert Durand, a detention camp spokesman. None of the suicide attempts succeeded, he said.
"At this point, I have no idea of motive, no idea of any co-ordination and no idea of any intended message," Durand said.
The attempted hanging took place in a medium-security camp where prisoners live in groups of up to 10 men in long bays lined with metal cots. When guards entered the unit, roommates "tried to prevent them from rescuing the detainee by using fans, light fixtures and other items as improvised weapons," Durand said. Guards halted the attempted hanging, quelled the disturbance and moved the roommates to a maximum-security area, Durand said.
The three who took overdoses were treated with activated charcoal to absorb and neutralize the medications, and two were held for observation in the camp hospital, Durand said.
The detention camp at the U.S. naval base in Cuba holds about 460 prisoners in five separate compounds. Durand said guards were searching all of the cells for contraband. The United States has faced criticism from human rights groups and some of its allies for holding prisoners at Guantanamo indefinitely. Some have been there since the camp opened in January 2002.