SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- (AP) -- An Algerian prisoner at Guantánamo Bay has accused his guards of using a form of waterboarding on him, his lawyer said Friday, marking the first allegation that the harsh interrogation technique was used at the U.S. military base.

A human rights commission of the Organization of American States, after being informed of the alleged abuse, said Friday it has asked the U.S. State Department to ensure that Djamel Ameziane is not mistreated and receives medical care.

Officials at Guantánamo and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but they have said repeatedly that all Guantánamo detainees are treated humanely.

Ameziane, who has been imprisoned at Guantánamo since February 2002 without being charged with crimes, told his lawyer Wells Dixon that guards at the base placed a water hose between his nose and mouth and ran it for several minutes. Ameziane said they repeated the procedure several times, nearly suffocating him.

''I had the impression that my head was sinking in water,'' Ameziane, 41, wrote his lawyer in a letter. ``I still have psychological injuries, up to this day. Simply thinking of it gives me the chills.''

According to Ameziane's account, during the same alleged incident the guards applied pepper spray all over his body, hosed him down and left him shackled and shivering in wet clothes in front of an air conditioner in an interrogation room.

Confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and at least two other ''high-value'' detainees imprisoned at the U.S. military base in southeast Cuba were waterboarded -- an interrogation tactic that produces the sensation of drowning -- but this occurred at CIA secret prisons before they were transferred to Guantánamo.

Dixon said in a telephone interview the alleged abuse happened early in Ameziane's confinement at Guantánamo.

''He was held down and someone essentially shoved a hose in his face, forcing a stream of water down his nose, mouth and into his lungs I guess,'' Dixon said.

Lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a law group that represents scores of Guantánamo detainees, on Aug. 6 filed a petition on behalf of Ameziane with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, asking that it intercede with the U.S. to protect the detainee.

The law group said in a statement that the commission, which is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States, agreed and issued ''urgent precautionary measures'' with the United States on Wednesday.

An official with the OAS-affiliated group confirmed it has asked the State Department to ensure the detainee is treated humanely, given medical treatment and not transferred to a country where he could be tortured. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

Several Algerian detainees have resisted being repatriated, saying they feared torture by security forces in their North African country upon their return.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is empowered to request that a member state adopt specific ''precautionary measures'' to prevent human rights abuses, but can also urge the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to order that measures be taken, and can submit cases to the court.

The United States is a member of the OAS.

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