UNITED NATIONS, February 14, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The United States commits acts amounting to torture at the notorious Guantanamo detention camp, according to a new UN report.

"The excessive violence used in many cases during transportation ... and forced-feeding of detainees on hunger strike must be assessed as amounting to torture," said the UN report, a draft of which was obtained by Reuters on Monday, February 13.

The report, to be released later this week, accuses the US of distorting international law by denying detainees the right to due process, such as not allowing them to choose their defense lawyers and appointing hearing officers with a "minimum level of legal knowledge."

The 38-page document was authored by five UN human rights experts after an 18-month investigation ordered by the UN Commission on Human Rights.

It was based on interviews by the investigators with former detainees, their lawyers and families, but not on-site visits.

The administration of US President George W. Bush has repeatedly come under fire over reports of abuse at Guantanamo, where it holds more than 500 detainees from about 40 countries, most of them captured in Afghanistan.

The report said that harsh conditions, such as placing detainees in solitary confinement, stripping them naked, subjecting them to severe temperatures and threatening them with dogs could amount to torture, if used simultaneously.

Using photos and video, the report said some detainees transported to Guantanamo were shackled, chained, hooded, kicked and stripped.

Forced-feeding of hunger strikers through nasal tubes caused intense pain, bleeding and vomiting.

New York Times reported last week that US jailers strapped down Guantanamo hunger-striking detainees into restraint chairs for hours to force-feed them and isolate them in cold cells.

The UN report said that although 30 days of isolation was the maximum permissible period, some detainees were put back into solitary confinement after very short breaks and lived in "quasi-isolation for up to 18 months."

The UN report urged the United States to close down the detention camp and try detainees on US territory or release them.

"The US government should close Guantanamo Bay detention facilities without further delay," it said.

"The US government should either expeditiously bring all Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial ... or release them without further delay."

But Washington dismissed the UN report as hearsay.

"Just because they decided not to take up the US government on the offer to go to Guantanamo Bay does not automatically give (them) the right to publish a report that is merely hearsay and not based on fact," said Sean McCormack, US State Department spokesman.

Former US president Bill Clinton and a chorus of Democrat and Republican Senators had pressed for the closure of the notorious detention camp.

Amnesty International had dismissed Guantanamo as "a symbol of abuse and represents a system of detention that is betraying the best US values and undermines international standards."

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