US Doesn't Sign Ban on Disappearances

[Briar]

US Doesn't Sign Ban on Disappearances

by Jamey Keaton

Nearly 60 countries signed a treaty on Tuesday that bans governments from holding people in secret detention, but the United States and some of its key European allies were not among them.

The signing capped a quarter-century of efforts by families of people who have vanished at the hands of governments.

"Our American friends were naturally invited to this ceremony; unfortunately, they weren't able to join us," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters after 57 nations signed the treaty at his ministry in Paris.

"That won't prevent them from one day signing on in New York at U.N. headquarters - and I hope they will."...

(These abstaining countries include the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy.)

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0207-03.htm