US attacks UN official on 'jails' (BBC News)

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Thursday, 8 December 2005, 02:56 GMT

US attacks UN official on 'jails'

Washington has rebuked UN human rights commissioner Louise Arbour for criticising its anti-terror tactics as the row alleged secret jails goes on.

Ms Arbour said reports the US was using secret overseas sites to interrogate suspects harmed its moral authority and she wanted to inspect any such centres. The US said it was inappropriate and illegitimate for her to question US conduct on the basis of media reports.

The issue is dogging a European tour by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.She will meet Nato foreign ministers on Thursday for formal talks but at a dinner on Wednesday the jails allegation reportedly already surfaced.

"There were a number of frank interventions, always respectful of Condoleezza Rice as a person," a source briefed on the dinner was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying. On Wednesday, Ms Rice said American interrogators were bound by an international convention banning the use of torture, regardless of whether they were working in the US or abroad.

'Second-guessing'

Ms Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme Court justice, told reporters in New York on Wednesday that the global ban on torture was becoming a casualty of the US-led "war on terror". She singled out the reported US policies of sending terror suspects to other countries and holding prisoners in secret detention.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4508892.stm >
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