UN: Thousands of Iraqis Detained Illegally

Just when you thought things couldn't get much worse...

The UN's human rights official in Iraq has said the Iraqi authorities are illegally holding thousands of people.

Gianni Magazzeni said that of the 15,000 people held under Iraqi control, little more than half were under the jurisdiction of the justice ministry.

This is the only body with the right to detain suspects for more than 72 hours.

But he said thousands were also being detained by the interior ministry and hundreds by the defence ministry, in clear breach of Iraqi law.

More than 14,000 people are also being held by US-led coalition forces in Iraq.

Mr Magazzeni said the UN believed that number was far too high and he urged the US military authorities to either charge or release them.

He said the UN still did not have access to prisoners being held in unidentified coalition prisons, and called for them to be released or handed over to Iraqi authorities to be charged.

"We want them to speed up this process," Mr Magazzeni said. He added that the UN was "very concerned about ongoing violations" of human rights in Iraq.

"Torture and summary executions happen every day," Mr Magazzeni said.

We shouldn't be surprised that, along with the so-called freedom the US has brought to Iraq, they've also exported illegal detention methods and means.

Of course, it's unclear whether the US will even hear the criticism of this UN human rights official, since it's tended to ignore calls for years to end these abuses. The US simply sees the UN's function as one to prop up its foreign policy decisions. When it goes beyond that and turns the tables, it's obviously misbehaving and is in need of serious reforms a la John Bolton - code words for doing the bidding of the Bush administration without question.

In May, a UN panel on torture and abuse will question some 30 US officials. I'll reprint a quote from that previous blog post here:

"It is the longest list of issues I have ever seen," Mercedes Morales, a U.N. human rights officer who serves as secretary to the U.N. Committee against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, told reporters.

And that list grows weekly as the public becomes more informed of stories like this one in which detainees have, once again, been denied their rights. The US may try to point the finger at the Iraqis, but there is no official government in place yet, so Bush and his minions certainly can't shift the blame that easily.

What do you do with a country with such a long laundry list of offenses? That is the question the UN must be prepared to answer and to take appropriate action on swiftly. Anything less would signal a cowardly deferment to the supposed 'greatest nation on earth'. And, if that happens, then no one can deny that the UN has simply become a tool of illegal occupiers who are answerable to no one.