Europe "must be held to account" for rendition complicity
Europe "must be held to account" for rendition complicity
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Wednesday, 14, Jun 2006 01:21
Europe must accept responsibility for supporting the CIA in its 'rendition' of terror suspects out of the US for torture in Arab nations, a report published today by Amnesty International has claimed.
The report, describing Europe as the US' "partner in crime", uses six studies of rendition cases to argue that European countries collaborated with the US both actively and passively, breaking human rights conventions in the process.
It provides evidence that European intelligence agencies liaised with the CIA in order to ease the capture of terror suspects and shows that European complicity in allowing the US access to airfields and airspace makes the countries involved morally culpable for the tortures it alleges have taken place.
"Europe often presents itself as a beacon for human rights. The uncomfortable truth is that without Europe's help, some men would not now be nursing torture wounds in prison cells in various parts of the world," the report says.
"These six cases leave little doubt that the highlighted states… have failed in their duty to respect and protect human rights. These states must be held to account for the part they played in the renditions."
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Sweden, Turkey and the UK are all named in the cases studied, while it is suggested that torture was condoned by British agents coordinating with US officials.
Amnesty International programme director for Scotland, Rosemary Burnett, claimed that evidence existed that "British agents have aided and abetted the US in these human rights abuses".
Last week a report was published by a EU human rights watchdog in the Council of Europe suggesting that Britain and six other states had created a "spider's web" of deception to cover up their "collusion" with the US.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has repeated its assertion that it has no evidence that US planes landing for refuelling in the UK were involved in rendition for torture.
Tony Blair has repeated the FCO line in parliament, saying in prime minister's questions last week that "we have said absolutely all we have to say about this matter… we have kept parliament informed of all the requests we are aware of".