Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 11
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
The US Senate report on CIA's arrest and interrogation methods once again demonstrates the presence of serious problems in the area of human rights in the US, the acting head of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's press service, Hikmet Hajiyev told Trend Dec. 11.
The Senate issued a report Dec. 9 on the methods of torture used by the US special services.
Hajiyev said the approach of the US to human rights in other countries, while having such problems within the country itself, shows its desire to transform human rights into a foreign policy tool and present itself as a "defender" of human rights.
"Azerbaijan, just like the whole international community and global media, is closely following the problems associated with the US Senate report on the methods of torture of the this country's special services," Hajiyev said.
"The report contains irrefutable facts on the use of the most brutal forms and methods of torture, going beyond all moral and legal frameworks. Only 500 pages of the report out of 6,000 were made public under the pretext of 'national security interests'," he said.
Hajiyev further said as one can see the US special services, without having any court order, only on the basis of operational information or often only on the basis of suspicion and assumption, "kidnapped" people around the world.
He said these individuals, along with the prisons in Guantanamo, Bagram and Abu Ghraib, were also placed in secret prisons located in the EU member states, and the most brutal physical, moral and psychological torture methods were used against them.
Hajiyev said all these acts are a gross violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was joined by the US, as well as the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
"The US, amid world community's growing concern over gross violation of human rights on its part, should draw political and legal conclusions on the facts of human rights violations," Hajiyev said.
"We call on the US, instead of making remarks under the guise of human rights with regard to other states, to take concrete steps to address the problems arising from the said report, and to solve the fundamental problems of mass clashes that engulfed Ferguson and other cities," Hajiyev said.
It should be noted that the US State Department spokesperson, Jen Psaki earlier expressed concern of the US over the human rights situation in Azerbaijan.