LONDON (AFP) - Rights group Amnesty International condemned Pakistan over abuse of terror suspects, claiming hundreds had been "disappeared," while many were tortured before being sold on to US authorities.
In a report the London-based group said bounty hunters routinely help arrest suspects, who are then sold on abroad including to the United States' infamous prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
[...]
But Amnesty alleges that, in cooperating in the 'war on terror', "the Pakistani government has systematically committed human rights abuses against hundreds of Pakistanis and foreign nationals."
"Hundreds of terror suspects have disappeared after being taken into custody, many by Pakistan's intelligence services," said the report Friday.
"A large number of war on terror detainees have been literally sold into US hands by bounty hunters who have received cash payments in return, typically 5,000 US dollars," it added.
Moazzam Begg, who was seized from his home in Islamabad in early 2003, gave a personal account of disappearing Friday.
"I received a knock on my door. I was literally kidnapped from my home," he told BBC radio, adding that his wife was lied to when she took legal proceedings seeking to find his whereabouts.
"They denied all knowledge that I was in their custody," he said, adding that "charges were a luxury that we could not get."
Torture, imprisonment, no charges, no trials... Sounds like what Bush has in mind with this detainee bill, doesn't it?
This won't be America anymore...
Tags: news politics war Pakistan terrorism Bush crime slavery human rights civil rights torture
