WASHINGTON - The United States insisted Friday it will hold an inquiry into alleged desecrations of the Koran by US soldiers at a US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Amid protests in Afghanistan, in which 14 have died in recent days, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the US administration takes the allegation "very seriously" and reaffirmed that the Defense Department has launched an investigation.
"One of the values that we hold most dearly here in the United States is religious freedom and the ability of people to be able to worship freely," he said.
"As Secretary (of State Condoleezza) Rice made clear yesterday, disrespect for the Holy Koran is something that the United States will never tolerate."
The spokesman said: "I would also point out, though, that for these detainees at Guantanamo Bay, they are provided the opportunity to worship freely, including being given copies of the Koran so that they may worship freely. And we want Muslims around the world to know that we share and understand the concerns that they have."
The United States promised an inquiry after Newsweek magazine reported US interrogators at the detention camp for "war on terror" suspects at Guantanamo defiled copies of the Muslim holy book and stuffed one down a lavatory to rattle Muslim prisoners.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that no evidence had yet been found to support the charge.
The US State Department on Friday also said that Rice`s statement a day earlier had gone some way to calming the situation.
"We have made sure that the secretary`s statement of yesterday is broadcast far and wide and available to citizens of other countries who might be concerned about these reports," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
"We have continued to make clear what the secretary made clear yesterday: The desecration of the Holy Koran is in no way consistent with our values or our policy, that these allegations are a very serious concern to us."
A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that things Friday "were a little calmer than one might have thought they would be after Friday prayers" in the wake of Rice`s statement.
And indications were in some places "where it has turned violent that there have been people out there stirring that trouble, folks with local reasons," the official added.
05/13/2005 20:49 GMT