Rights groups file French torture case vs Rumsfeld

PARIS (Reuters) - Human rights groups have filed a lawsuit in France alleging that former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld allowed torture at U.S.-run detention centres in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The plaintiffs, which include the French-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), say Rumsfeld authorised interrogation techniques that led to rights abuses.

The United States says it does not torture, though it has authorised several methods widely condemned by rights groups such as exposure to extreme temperatures and 'waterboarding', or simulated drowning.

"We will only stop once the American authorities involved in the torture programme are brought to justice," CCR chief Michael Ratner said in a statement posted on the FIDH Web site.

"Donald Rumsfeld must understand that he has nowhere to hide. A torturer is an enemy of humanity," he added.

The plaintiffs argue in their filing, which was also posted on the FIDH Web site, that French courts have universal jurisdiction -- allowing them to try foreigners in cases that occurred abroad -- under the 1984 Convention Against Torture.

They said Rumsfeld was visiting France on Friday and called for him to be detained.

"Rumsfeld's presence on French territory gives the French courts the authority to try him, in that he ordered and authorised torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment on detainees at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere," the FIDH said in its statement.

The Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq hit the headlines in April 2004 when details of the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers were made public, badly damaging the reputation of the U.S. military.