Manfred Nowak, United Nations special rapporteur on torture, said he had received credible information the situation had improved at U.S. detention facilities in recent years, but stressed only a visit would allow him to verify them.
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“I was a little astonished that the U.S. government is not willing to grant me access because it might perhaps even be in their own interest if I compared different detention facilities,” Nowak told a news briefing in Geneva.
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At least 30,000 prisoners are held by Iraqi authorities, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross which made its first visit to security detainees held by Iraq’s central government last October.

The neutral Red Cross — whose reports are confidential unlike those of U.N. investigators — still seeks a wider agreement for access to all prisoners held by Iraq. Sunni Arabs have accused the Shi’ite-led interior ministry of operating torture centres and dungeons holding Sunni detainees.

Nowak also voiced dismay at President George W. Bush’s veto last Saturday of legislation passed by Congress that would have banned the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from using waterboarding. The U.N. envoy reiterated that the interrogation technique which simulates drowning amounted to torture.

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