From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Tue Oct 21 2008 - 16:24:41 EDT
US denies torturing suspects in Ethiopian jails
First Published 2008-10-22
US denies accusations that it used torture during interrigations of
suspects fleeing Somalia.
ADDIS ABABA - The United States denied Tuesday accusations that its
officers tortured terror suspects detained in Ethiopian jails after
Ethiopia's 2006 invasion of Somalia.
Rights groups said US and other intelligence services interrogated
several people detained by Kenya's forces on its border with Somalia and
transferred to Ethiopia, as they fled Ethiopia's war with Somali
insurgents.
Several detainees, including eight Kenyans released early this month,
said they were denied access to legal counsel and their consular
representatives as well as tortured by US interrogators.
"The US takes every effort to ensure that any treatment of prisoners is
handled in a humane way and any extraditions not be done for people who
are subject to torture," US Assistant Secretary of State for Human
Rights and Labour David Kramer told journalists in Addis Ababa.
"We stress the importance of transparency and the respect of human
rights," he added.
Addis Ababa has also denied claims it tortured the suspects while in its
custody.
Ethiopia has released many of the at least 150 people who were in
detention there, rights groups say. They include women and children from
more than 18 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom,
and Canada.
Separately, Kramer expressed concern over shrinking freedom in Ethiopia
and draft legislation which, if enacted, would severely restrict aid
groups' operations.
The Ethiopian army invaded Somalia in late 2006 to rescue Somalia's
embattled transitional government and oust the Islamic Courts Union
(ICU), which controlled of much of the country's central and southern
regions.
Since then, ICU fighters have waged a deadly insurgency against the
Ethiopian and the transitional government forces.
But Ethiopian troops' retaliations have caused many casualties among
Somali civilians.
Since the Ethiopian invasion, about one million Somalis have fled their
homes. An estimated 6,500 civilians have been killed.
Aid workers estimate 2.6 million Somalis need assistance. That number is
expected to reach 3.5 million by the end of the year if the humanitarian
situation does not improve, according to the UN.
In May 2008, Amnesty International accused the Ethiopian troops in
Somalia of increasingly resorting to throat-slitting executions,
highlighting an "increasing incidence" of gruesome methods by Ethiopian
forces that include rape and torture.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=28441
<http://www.middle-east-online.com/pictures/big/_28441_David_Kramer.jpg>
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