US allegedly forces out UN Afghanistan Investigator

Egyptian-born Depaul Law Professor Cherif Bassiouni was the UN Commission on Human Right's investigator in Afghanistan, making repeated trips there over the past year. He had pressed unsuccessfully for access to US detention facilities throughout the country.

The US and UN claim the decision to end his mandate, made by the 53-member Commission in Geneva, was due to an overall "improvement" in the human rights situation. Yet the Commission, due to its farsical inaction on the issue of Darfur (and its inclusion of serial human rights abusers like Sudan), has recently lost all credibility, becoming a political football. The US seems very clear on its stance towards media and independent access to remote areas of Afghanistan: not allowed.

But in an interview with the BBC, Prof Bassiouni alleged there was an intensive lobbying campaign by US officials in Geneva.

"It has nothing to do with the work in Afghanistan or the [allegedly improved] situation in Afghanistan," he said.

"This is a very narrow, limited issue that is of concern to the US Defence Department and the hawks in the administration who simply do not want anybody to look into the way people are being detained in Afghanistan by US forces."