NEW YORK, Dec 14: The Human Rights Watch on Friday charged that the US Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) have denied it access to detention centres that hold people arrested in relation to the Sept 11 terrorist investigation.

Decrying denial of access to the detainees the HRW said that the US justice department should allow human rights groups access to and information about the detainees, including where they are being held.

The watchdog body said that the INS has also said that it cannot provide information regarding a Pakistani citizen who died in its custody unless Human Rights Watch produces a document with the man’s signature indicating his consent to the release of information. The man, Mohammed Butt, died on Oct 23 allegedly of unspecified heart problems.

“The government is saying ‘trust us’, but democracies require more than trust, even in times of war,” said Allyson Collins, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. No good comes from keeping the public in the dark about how detainees are treated.

Human Rights Watch, the largest US-based human rights organization, requested permission in October and November to visit four jails and detention centres that hold people arrested in connection with the terrorist investigation. Human Rights Watch has now received denials for three of the facilities and awaits a response to the fourth request.

The INS district director in Newark turned down access to the Hudson County Correctional Centre on Nov 30 saying that interviewing detainees would not be feasible given the “extraordinary” circumstances.

The wardens of the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Manhattan, and the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, NY, sent identical letters on Dec 6 that stated that the events of Sept 11 required them to minimize “activities not critical to the day-to-day operations of the institution”. Human Rights Watch’s request to visit Passaic County Jail in Paterson, NJ, is still pending.

Human Rights Watch requested permission to visit the facilities because it was concerned by reports of inappropriate treatment and infringement on detainees’ rights. Since that time, interviews with former detainees and with attorneys representing detainees have reinforced those concerns.

Human Rights Watch conducts jail and prison investigations around the world to ensure that the treatment of detainees is consistent with standards affirmed in international human rights treaties and internationally-recognized standards for detention.

The rights group has made numerous such investigations in the United States, visiting scores of federal, state, and local facilities, including the Bureau of Prisons’ Administrative Maximum Security Prison in Florence, Colorado, and more than a dozen county jails holding INS detainees.

On Oct 29, Human Rights Watch wrote to the INS, FBI, and the Hudson County prosecutor’s office to obtain information about the Oct 23 death in custody of Muhammad Butt, a Pakistani national. Mr Butt had been detained as part of the investigation into the Sept 11 attacks. In a Dec 6 response, the INS refused to disclose any information regarding Muhammad Butt, “due to laws relating to privacy”.

In that letter from the INS headquarters in Washington, DC, Human Rights Watch was instructed to contact the INS district director in Newark if the group had further questions. The letter added, “when you contact the district director, please be sure to have written consent from Mr Butt stating that that office is able to release information concerning his case to you. This statement should contain his name, and your name, and his alien number along with his written signature”.