Broad International Coalition Condemns U.S. Torture

European and Latin American leaders condemned the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops on Friday and pushed Washington to work with the United Nations rather than go it alone in its war on terror.

Despite initial opposition from Britain, dozens of leaders at a summit in Mexico agreed to condemn the sexual abuse and humiliation of inmates by American soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Videotapes and photographs of the abuse have battered President Bush’s election-year approval ratings, alienated public sentiment in the Arab world and led even allies in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq to join protests.

We declare our horror at recent evidence of the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraqi jails. These abuses go against international law,'' the European Union, Latin American and Caribbean leaders said in a declaration at the end of their one-day summit.We energetically condemn all forms of abuse, torture and other cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment against people, including prisoners of war, wherever they occur,’’ they said after hours of wrangling over the wording of the document.

Latin American nations had wanted even tougher language in condemning what they said was the torture of Iraqi inmates, but the EU blocked those efforts.

A bitter dispute over how strongly to condemn the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba foiled efforts to present the summit as a success story of two regions working together on international issues.

The leaders did agree, however, to push for a reformed and stronger United Nations to lead the way in resolving conflicts instead of allowing individual nations to act alone — a pointed reference to the United States, the world’s remaining superpower.

Multilateralism is an imperative of our times,'' said French President Jacques Chirac, a leading European opponent of the Iraq war.One needs only to observe the threat that failed states carry for the world’s equilibrium or the deadlocks entailed by unilateral action.’’

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, in a dig at the United States, said security could not be defined purely in military terms and the United Nations needed strengthening. Germany wants its own permanent seat on an expanded Security Council.

INTERNATIONAL OUTRAGE

The U.S. occupation of Iraq faces fierce armed resistance and the international outrage over the abuse of prisoners has put the Bush administration on the defensive.

The United States and its close ally Britain are trying to win U.N. approval for a new resolution laying out the powers of a new Iraqi caretaker government. France and Germany say the proposals are not specific enough.

Cuba and EU nations clashed throughout the summit in Mexico’s western city of Guadalajara and, after failing to bridge their differences, ended up scrapping a proposal to condemn the U.S. embargo against the communist-run island.

Latin American nations wanted to directly name the United States and the legislation it uses to enforce the embargo, but the Europeans argued for more general language. Cuba refused to accept the EU’s decaffeinated'' version and it was withdrawn.  Cuba accused EU nations of acting likea flock of sheep, subordinate to Washington.’’

The summit of 58 nations with a combined population of nearly 1 billion people and more than a third of the world’s economic output was aimed at building closer ties between Europe and Latin America.

Some said this could help ease the reliance of both regions on their often troubled relationship with the United States.

``In international relations, monogamy is not always a good thing,’’ Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said. Reuters