Rumsfeld to 'face difficulties' over Guantanamo: UN expert

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May 3, 2009 - AFP

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GENEVA — Former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld could soon be in trouble for the role he played in human rights abuses committed in the Guantanamo prison, a United Nations expert said Wednesday.

"In a year or two, his responsibilities will be established. Wherever he goes, he will face difficulties," Leandro Despouy, who is Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, told journalists in Geneva.

A US bipartisan Senate report released late last year found Rumsfeld and other top administration officials responsible for abuse of Guantanamo detainees in US custody.

It said Rumsfeld authorised harsh interrogation techniques on December 2, 2002 at the Guantanamo prison, although he ruled them out a month later.

Despouy said the "strong resistance" put forward by the former US administration to current US president Barack Obama's decision to close the detention centre has nothing to do with the officially cited reason of "national security" considerations.

Rather they are fearful that they may be taken to task once the detention centre is closed, said Despouy.

The UN expert called on the international community to "support" Obama's decision to close the prison.

"If we act in the perspective of human rights, we should support the efforts of those who want these responsibilities to be established," he added, referring to the harsh interrogation techniques used on the detainees.

He said the international community should help the US by taking in former detainees.

Obama has said he would close the notorious "war on terror" prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by January 2010 and is seeking host states for up to 60 of the 245 inmates.

The Obama administration however faces a series of legal and political hurdles at home in its efforts to close the base, with strong opposition against releasing detainees into the United States.

In January, the UN's special torture rapporteur called on the US to pursue Rumsfeld and former president George W. Bush for torture and bad treatment of Guantanamo prisoners.

"Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation" to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said, in remarks broadcast on Germany's ZDF television.

He noted Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required "all means, particularly penal law" to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.