Russia seeks to suppress UN secret prisons report

GENEVA (AP) -- Russia urged the U.N.'s top human rights body on Thursday to suppress a report on secret detention centers that includes interviews with unnamed Chechens alleging they were tortured in covert prisons operated by Moscow as part of its fight against Caucasus separatists.

The 226-page study by a group of independent U.N.-appointed human rights experts shouldn't be published as an official document by the global body, a Russian diplomat told the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Vladimir Zheglov said the report was "confrontational" and should be removed from a U.N. Web site where it has been available since last month.

U.S. and European delegates to the rights council said they want the report discussed in Geneva on March 8. The U.S. and Britain were among countries criticized in the study.

Jeremy Sarkin, a member of a U.N. panel that investigates enforced disappearances who contributed to the report, said "it would obviously be problematic if the report was not presented." Rights groups say Russia's actions are part of a wider effort by some countries to interfere in the work of U.N. human rights investigators.

Russia can only block the report if it gains the support of a majority of the council's 47 members.

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