HRW tells US President:

Probe Bush administration human rights violations

US has legal obligations to probe crimes. If US doesn’t act, other countries should:

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called upon US President Barrack Obama to investigate allegations of detainee abuse authorized by former US President George W. Bush while stating that there should be no double standards on issues of human rights abuses.

It claimed in a report published on its website that overwhelming evidence of torture has surfaced obliging current President Obama to order a criminal investigation into the allegations.

It further added that the US was right to call for justice over allegations in places like Darfur, Libya and Sri Lanka but that there should be no double standards as the shielding of its own officials makes it easier for others to dismiss global efforts to bring violators to justice. The report on the HRW website said, among other things -

Overwhelming evidence of torture by the Bush administration obliges President Barack Obama to order a criminal investigation into allegations of detainee abuse authorized by former President George W. Bush and other senior officials.

The Obama administration has failed to meet US obligations under the Convention against Torture - to investigate acts of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees.

The 107-page report, Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees, presents substantial information warranting criminal investigations of Bush and senior administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and CIA Director George Tenet, for ordering practices such as “waterboarding,” the use of secret CIA prisons, and the transfer of detainees to countries where they were tortured.

“There are solid grounds to investigate Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Tenet for authorizing torture and war crimes,” said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. “President Obama has treated torture as an unfortunate policy choice rather than a crime. His decision to end abusive interrogation practices will remain easily reversible unless the legal prohibition against torture is clearly reestablished.”

If the US government does not pursue credible criminal investigations, other countries should prosecute US officials involved in crimes against detainees in accordance with international law, HRW said.

“The US has a legal obligation to investigate these crimes,” Roth said. “If the US doesn’t act on them, other countries should.”