Geneva - Washington has for the first time acknowledged to the United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at United States detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as well as in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted on Friday to the UN Committee against Torture, said a member of the 10-person panel.
The US mission to the UN institutions in Geneva was unavailable for comment on the report.
"They are no longer trying to duck this, and have respected their obligation to inform the UN," the committee member said anonymously, adding that the US described the incidents as "isolated acts" carried out by low-ranking members of the military who were being punished.
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"They will have to explain themselves" to the committee, the member said. "Nothing should be kept in the dark."
UN sources said it was the first time the world body had received such a frank statement on torture from US authorities. The committee is gathering information from the US ahead of hearings next May.
Four UN human rights experts slammed the US this week for stalling on a request to allow visits to terrorism suspects held at its Guantanamo base in Cuba. - Sapa-AFP
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