Posted on 12/09/2005 9:12:10 PM PST by FairOpinion
Top UN human rights official Louise Arbour has repeated accusations made earlier this week that the US and other countries are easing curbs on torture. Ms Arbour told the BBC that governments had to clarify if they were holding prisoners in secret jails, without the freedom to communicate or be visited.
The US envoy to the UN has said Ms Arbour's comments are "inappropriate".
Ms Arbour said she had a mandate to protect and defend human rights, and she would continue to do exactly that.
She said she did not believe she needed to respond to US criticism of her comments.
"I'm the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This is what I do," she told the BBC.
Meeting with Rice
Ms Arbour said on Friday that she believed the US was among a group of countries "advocating an erosion of the total ban on torture".
She said attempts to seek diplomatic assurances that suspects would not be tortured in countries to which they had been deported constituted "a departure from the total prohibition" on torture.
On Wednesday, she said reports the US was using secret overseas sites to interrogate suspects harmed its moral authority and she wanted to inspect any such centres.
Ms Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme Court justice, told reporters in New York 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.
"Two phenomena today are having an acutely corrosive effect on the global ban on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," she said.
The issue is dogging a European tour by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Ms Arbour said she was "looking forward" to a meeting with Ms Rice, scheduled for January.
I certainly haven't.
That wacky "food for oil" bunch again.
They have to say something a couple of times a year to justify dinners at Masa and Jean Georges. They know they can spout off about the US without causing a diplomatic rukus.
"I also am known as the High Princess of Righteousness. I am a ranking member of the United Nations, you see. My toots smell like roses and my breath smells like a baby's. Shall you dare cross me, I just may propose a resolution against you and your kind!"
Statement by Rush Limbaugh. Sorry El Rushbo, she is already very busy with lots of other posteriors.
We should welcome the UN's input just as soon as they repay the Iraqi's for money stolen under the oil for food program.
Top UN human rights official Louise Arbour has repeated accusations made earlier this week that the US and other countries are easing curbs on torture.
I really wish they would define what they mean by torture.
"I'm the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This is what I do," she told the BBC"
Our hero.
trip down memory lane......
Women, Children Killed in UN Offensive in DR Congo: Villagers
AFP ^ | 02 Mar 2005
A spokesman for the ethnic Lendu community Wednesday accused UN peacekeepers of killing women and children in a village in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo during an offensive against local militias blamed for a murderous ambush.
"The person who called me (from the village of Loga) told me there were 25 people killed and that they were still looking for more bodies," said Larry Thewi Batsi, spokesman for the Lendus, the largest ethnic community in the troubled Ituri region.
"There are definitely women and children among the dead. He told me about three primary school children," the spokesman told reporters in the Ituri town of Bunia.
He did not exclude the possibility that militiamen were among the casualties. "I was not there so I cannot confirm it," he said.
A spokesman for the UN Mission in DR Congo, MONUC, said he could "not rule out that civilians" were among the casualties during the operation on Tuesday, noting that the militias had "used civilians as human shields" during the fighting.
"At this point, I can neither confirm nor deny that there were civilian casualties. We have no information on this at this time," said Kemal Saiki.
UN peacekeeping troops are pressing an offensive against local militias in the Ituri region after killing dozens in response to a murderous ambush.
Almost 250 Pakistani and South African troops on Tuesday killed at least 50 militiamen and destroyed two of their camps, the chief of staff of the UN mission in DRC (MONUC), General Jean-Francois Collot d'Escury, said Wednesday.
The onslaught was a "proportionate" UN reaction to the killing last Friday of nine Bangladeshi UN soldiers, Collot d'Escury told a press conference in Kinshasa, capital of the vast central African country emerging from a ruinous war.
How many heads have rolled at the hands of Islamic terrorists while the UN freaks got high, bought cheesy hookers at the Waldorf and sucked the city dry? I wish the UN would just get the hell out of this country. Let them move into Tehran, I am sure they'd be welcomed.
bttt
I am so totally sick of the UN...Congress, please kick them out of NY and send them to France where there are other like minded idiots into socialism and coddling terrorists.
I couldn't care less about how terrorists are treated. They are nothing but deranged killers and perform more than their fair share of torture. Why isn't this witch condemning Zarqawi for beheadings in Iraq? Or the mangled bodies of kidnap victims, IEDs and car bombs? How about the pali/hamas suicide bombings in Israeli restaurants and night clubs? Where is the outrage against Al Q for Madrid, NY, and Washington, DC. Where is the outrage for the Kenyan Embassies, the USS Cole, Khobar Towers, or the innocents killed recently in Jordan and Egypt? F her and F the UN. The UN is the most corrupt, incompetent organization every conceived. They cause disaster and unnecessary suffering in every country that they intervene in. They live in lavish luxury in New York City while extorting US taxpayers for money that they say will be used for the poor of the world. They are hypocrites of the lowest form and they aren't fooling everyone as we know where the extorted money ends up. It sure as hell isn't going to help the needy but is used to fund ever increasing UN bureaucracy, ineptness, and corruption. They have more than overstayed their welcome in this country and the entire organization needs to be deported and all US funding should be cut off forever. The billions that we throw down that black hole can rebuild the entire infrastructure in the United States. The world would be better off without these inept power hungry fools making bad situations irreparably worse.
That just means she gets to work with the pinnacle of human rights, Libya and Sudan. Perhaps someone can refresh my memory...how much pressure is she putting on REAL human rights violators such as North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Sudan not to mention the child rapist UN troops themselves.
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