The advocates told a three-member panel of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization of American States, that 135 victims of alleged abuse by former police Cmdr. Jon Burge and detectives working under him between 1972 and 1991 deserve redress and justice.

The attorneys asked the commission to come to Chicago to interview the alleged victims, police officials and Mayor Richard Daley, who was Cook County state's attorney during part of the time they say the torture occurred.

"It should be an embarrassment to Chicago that we have to come here" to Washington, said a tearful David Bates, one of the men who alleged he was tortured by police in 1983 at the age of 18. Bates served 11 years on a murder conviction but was exonerated in 1994 and released when it was determined his confession had been forced.

Dave Bayless, a Chicago police spokesman, said police have been fully cooperative with a special prosecutor who is investigating the abuse claims. He was non-committal on whether police would cooperate with the international panel.

A spokeswoman for Daley's office said the mayor was in Poland and unavailable for comment.

Burge was fired in February 1993 after a 15-month police board investigation. He was found not liable in a 1989 federal civil trial, and he has never been charged criminally in the case. He now lives in Florida, but could not be reached for comment Friday.

A police board report in 1991 documented at least 50 cases of abuse. The investigators concluded that Burge and two other officers had mistreated Andrew Wilson in February 1982 after a five-day manhunt to find the killer of two Chicago police officers. Wilson was charged with the killings and convicted.

"This is probably the most documented case of abuse in the history of the republic," said Standish Willis of the National Conference of Black Lawyers. "Everybody knows about it, but nobody has stepped forward to punish those responsible. It's not just these 135 who are victims, but indeed the whole community."

During various investigations and court cases in 1988 and 1992, Burge repeatedly denied charges that he and others tortured suspects at Chicago's Area 2 and Area 3 police stations. In a 2004 civil trial deposition, he invoked the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination and did not answer questions.

The three members of the human-rights commission--from Antigua, Chile and Paraguay--heard more than an hour of testimony Friday. The commission set no timetable for deciding whether to visit Chicago.

The United States is not a signatory to the commission's American Convention on Human Rights and therefore could not face charges at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica.

Should the commission decide to investigate the allegations, the full seven-member panel would make recommendations to the federal government and publish its findings. The panel would have no subpoena powers.

"We believe [such a report] carries moral weight and political weight," said commissioner Jose Zalaquett. "But it does not carry the force of a court decision."

Santiago Canton, the commission's executive secretary, said the panel increasingly hears more U.S. cases.

"The United States has a good record for cooperation," Canton said. "It does not have a very good record of compliance" with recommendations. The U.S. does not have a representative on the seven-member panel.

Two representatives from the State Department attended the hearing but had no comment on the allegations.

During the hearing, Willis told commissioners that Burge, who served in Vietnam before joining the police force, brought techniques from military interrogation and prisoner of war camps to his work in Chicago.

Special prosecutor Edward Egan has been looking into the allegations since April 2002. Egan told The Associated Press in August that he hopes to end his investigation by the end of this year.