One of the early photos of abuse by US forces in Iraq which exploded onto the world stage last April.

GENEVA, March 13, 2005 (IslamONline.net & News Agencies) – Human rights watch-dogs, including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, have urged the UN High Commission on Human Rights (HCHR) to condemn the US for prisoners abuse.

“If the commission is going to be taken seriously, it needs to be looking at the United States as well as Cuba, China and other serious human rights situations,” Loubna Freih, Geneva representative of Human Rights Watch, told Reuters Sunday, March 13.

The annual six-week session of the 53-member HCHR, the principal human rights organ of the United Nations, will kick off in Geneva on Monday, March 14.

Cuba has said it will attempt to bring the American prisoner abuse issue before the commission.

If any such move emerges during the session, Washington, usually a finger-pointer on human rights, could end up in the dock itself, said Reuters.

Launched in 1946, the Geneva-based commission examines nations' adherence to treaties and conventions on issues ranging from illegal killings and arbitrary detention to women's rights, child pornography and the right to food and health.

Bad Record

The US has been strongly criticized over abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and the notorious Guantanamo detention camp.

The abuse of Iraqi prisoners exploded onto the world stage on April 29 after the CBS news network published several graphic photos  of detainees tortured and sexually abused by US soldiers at the Baghdad-based prison.

Since then the scandal has been deepening, exposing more elements and factors about interrogation techniques approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

On Saturday, February 5, the UN-appointed independent expert on human rights in Afghanistan confirmed that the US-led forces had mistreated and tortured people in the war-torn country.

“There is a very unusual practice in Afghanistan, mainly foreign forces, who have taken upon themselves the right, without any legal process of arresting people, detaining them, mistreating them and possibly even torturing them,” said Cherif Bassiouni.

The HRW said in a recent report that the abuse of Afghan detainees by US forces was “systematic” and not limited to a few cases.

The New York Times also carried a testimony of a former Afghan police colonel who accused the American troops of torturing and sexually abusing him while in several US-run detention centers across Afghanistan.

In another damning report, UN human rights investigators on Friday, February 4, accused Washington of doing too little to improve treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo.

Some 558 prisoners have been held virtually incommunicado at the remote base on the southeastern tip of Cuba since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan without charge or access to attorneys.

The New York Times revealed on October 17 that uncooperative detainees in Guantanamo were regularly tortured by US guards.

In a July letter to Maj. Gen. Donald Ryder, the Army's provost marshal, FBI counterterrorism official Thomas Harrington confirmed that FBI agents saw military interrogators use abusive tactics on prisoners at Guantanamo.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has accused the US of committing “war crimes” in Guantanamo.

In June, the HRW issued a report entitled “The Road To Abu Ghraib” linking the abuse of detainees in Iraq , Afghanistan and Guantanamo to the policies adopted by US President George W. Bush in his so-called war on terror.