WORLD: REST OF WORLD
'US troops used Eminem music as torture device'
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
AP
KABUL: A human rights group claims music by Eminem and Dr Dre were used as instruments of torture. Human Rights Watch has issued a report saying the US operated a secret prison in Afghanistan and tortured detainees.
The report quotes an Ethiopian-born detainee as saying he was kept in a pitch-black prison and forced to listen to Eminem and Dr Dre for 20 days before it was replaced by 'horrible ghost laughter and Halloween sounds'. CIA officials have no commented on the allegations.
The prison was run near Kabul, the report, which was based on the accounts of several detainees at the US prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, said.
CIA officials have not commented on various allegations of torture, but vice-president Dick Cheney on Sunday denied that the US engaged in torture.
According to the report, the detainees were kept in total darkness - they called the facility 'Dark Prison' - and were tortured and mistreated by US and Afghan guards in civilian clothes, an indication the facility may have been operated by the CIA.
"They were chained to walls, deprived of food and drinking water, and kept in total darkness with loud rap, heavy metal music, or other sounds blared for weeks at a time," the report said.
"Some detainees said they were shackled in a manner that made it impossible to lie down or sleep, with restraints that caused their hands and wrists to swell up or bruise."
Human Rights Watch did not speak with the detainees directly as the US has not allowed rights organisations to visit detainees at Guantanamo or other overseas detention sites.
Instead, the detainees' accounts were given to their lawyers, who passed them on to the rights group. The group said the allegations were credible enough to warrant an investigation.
Copyright © 2005 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.