US suspected of keeping secret prisoners on warships: UN official
Tue Jun 28,10:02 AM ET
VIENNA (AFP) - The United Nations has learned of "very, very serious" allegations that the United States is secretly detaining terrorism suspects in various locations around the world, and notably aboard prison ships, the UN's special rapporteur on terrorism said.
While qualifying the accusations as rumours, rapporteur Manfred Nowak said the situation was sufficiently serious to merit an official inquiry.
"There are very, very serious accusations that the United States is maintaining secret camps, notably on ships," the Austrian UN official told AFP in Vienna, adding that the vessels were believed to be in the Indian Ocean region.
"They are only rumours, but they appear sufficiently well-based to merit an official inquiry,," he added.
Last Thursday Nowak and three other UN human rights experts announced that they were opening an inquiry into the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where US officials have been holding several hundred people without trial, and into other such locations.
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