UNTIL THE END
In its own submission to the committee,
published late last year, Washington justified the holding of thousands
of foreign terrorism suspects in detention centers abroad, including
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, on the grounds that it was fighting a war that
was still not over.
"Like other wars, when they start, we do not
know when they will end. Still, we may detain combatants until the end
of the war," it said.
The U.S. human rights image has taken a
battering abroad over a string of scandals involving the sexual and
physical abuse of detainees held by American forces in Afghanistan,
Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.
In its submission, Washington did not mention alleged secret detention centers.
Amnesty
listed a series of incidents in recent years involving torture of
detainees in U.S. custody, noting the heaviest sentence given to
perpetrators was five months in jail.
This was the same punishment you could get for stealing a bicycle in the United States, it added.
"Although
the U.S. government continues to assert its condemnation of torture and
ill-treatment, these statements contradict what is happening in
practice," said Goering, referring to the testimony of torture victims
in the report.
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