United States Presents Report to U.N. Anti-Torture Committee

05 May 2006

United States Presents Report to U.N. Anti-Torture Committee

State's senior legal adviser warns against "speculation and rumor"

By Vince Crawley
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington – Claims of torture and mistreatment by U.S. personnel in the War on Terror have become so exaggerated and overstated that they are “absurd,” the State Department’s top legal adviser told a U.N. human rights committee May 5.

John B. Bellinger III told the U.N. Committee Against Torture that there have been “relatively few actual cases of abuse and wrongdoing” by U.S. personnel, and that these isolated cases do not reflect widespread abuses. He asked the international committee to “keep a sense of proportion and perspective.”

Bellinger, the senior legal adviser to the State Department, is leading a high-level U.S. delegation that is presenting a formal report to the Committee Against Torture, which meets May 5-8 in Geneva. The United States is among 141 nations that are party to the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which requires signatories periodically to submit reports on their compliance with the treaty.

The United States last submitted a written report to the committee in 1999 and orally presented that report in 2000. In May 2005, the United States submitted its second periodic report to the committee; Bellinger’s delegation began its oral presentation this May 5.

Bellinger said he is “acutely aware of the innumerable allegations … about various U.S. actions” against captured combatants in U.S. custody. (See related article.)

“I would ask you not to believe every allegation that you have heard,” Bellinger told the U.N. committee. “Allegations about U.S. military or intelligence activities have become so hyperbolic as to be absurd. Critics will now accept virtually any speculation and rumor and circulate them as fact.” Because of security concerns and ongoing intelligence operations, U.S. government officials often are unable to comment on the allegations, he said.

DETAINEE ISSUE

Human rights groups have accused the United States of mistreating detainees captured in military and intelligence operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Media reports also have alleged that the United States has transported captured fighters to countries known to practice torture. (See related article.)

Addressing the U.N. committee, Bellinger stressed what he called “the United States government’s absolute commitment to upholding our national and international obligations to eradicate torture and to prevent cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment worldwide.” He said that President Bush has made clear that “freedom from torture is an inalienable human right.” (See related article.)

The U.S. report and written answers to questions from the committee “contain extensive information about U.S. detainee operations in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Bellinger said.

“It is the view of the United States that these detention operations are governed by the law of armed conflict,” which supersedes civil processes, he said. At the time negotiations on the Convention Against Torture were concluded in the 1980s, Bellinger said, U.S. negotiators made clear that the treaty “was never intended to apply to armed conflicts” but to “ordinary domestic legal processes.”

Nonetheless, because the United States feels so strongly about prohibiting torture, “we are pleased to provide extensive information on these operations in a sincere spirit of cooperation with the committee,” Bellinger said.

The United States, he said, has comprehensive legislation that allows victims of torture, regardless of citizenship, to file legal claims against foreign governments in U.S. federal courts. In addition, the United States is the largest contributor to the U.N. Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture. Between 2000 and 2005, the United States contributed more than $32 million to the fund, which is approximately 70 percent of total contributions during that time.

Barry Lowenkron, assistant secretary of state for democracy and labor, also addressed the U.N. committee hearing.

“My government’s position is clear,” Lowenkron said. “U.S. criminal law and treaty obligations prohibit torture, and the United States will not engage in or condone it anywhere. … That is not just a legal obligation – we are fulfilling a higher moral obligation, which our nation has embraced since its earliest days.”

Abuses of detainees, such as those at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, “sickened the American people,” Lowenkron said, adding, “when we make mistakes, we take corrective measures.”

For example, the U.S. government has conducted more than 600 criminal investigations into allegations of detainee mistreatment, he said, and more than 250 individuals have been held accountable for detainee abuse. Punishments have included prison terms as long as 10 years, he said.

More than 1,000 international journalists have traveled to Guantanamo Bay to report on detainee operations, and the International Committee for the Red Cross recently said conditions at Guantanamo had “improved considerably,” Lowenkron said.

The U.S. government also has an effective system of checks and balances, Lowenkron said. For example, federal courts have rendered decisions on detainee matters, and the U.S. Congress recently passed the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which makes it illegal for anyone in U.S. custody, regardless of location, to be mistreated.

“The enactment of the Detainee Treatment Act,” Bellinger told the committee, “highlights our nation’s commitment to upholding the values of freedom and humanity on which it was founded.”

The full text of Bellinger's and Lowenkron's statements are posted on the Web site of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. The site also has a statement on the U.S. report on the Convention Against Torture.

Homeland Security

United States Presents Report to U.N. Anti-Torture Committee