Religious leaders urge US to give up torture

Washington, June 14 : A group of religious leaders have urged the United States to repudiate torture and inhumane treatment in the wave of reports of alleged human rights abuses of prisoners at the US detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

In an advertisement in the New York Times, a broad coalition of 27 religious leaders, called on President Bush and the US Congress to remove all ambiguities from the US policy and ban torture without exception.

However, the White House maintains that the US government does not resort to torture.

The group ranges from various denominations and include the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, the Reverend Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Dr Sayyid M Syeed, the National Director of the Islamic Society of North America. Nobel laureates Elie Wiesel and Former President Jimmy Carter are also among the signers.

The statement by religious leaders comes as the United Nations and human rights groups have criticised the Bush administration and other countries for adopting a narrower definition of torture in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, said prior to the 2001 attacks, governments realised that torture was absolutely prohibited and something they should be ashamed of.

UNI

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