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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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May 5th,
2008 - Renditions Ruin the EU Case |
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By David Cronin Inter Press Service May 5th, 2008 Collusion between European
Union governments and a secret U.S. torture and kidnapping programme has
damaged the EU’s efforts to promote human rights throughout the world, an
internal paper drawn up by Brussels officials has admitted. In 2001, the EU approved
guidelines on how diplomats representing it should raise concern over the
ill-treatment of detainees with the authorities in foreign countries. These
guidelines stemmed from a stated commitment to “carry out systematic and
sustained action in the fight against torture.” A new EU assessment of how
the guidelines are being applied acknowledges that some governments have
accused the Union of double standards because some of its member states have
been implicated in the so-called extraordinary rendition scheme operated by
the Central Intelligence Agency of the U.S. The internal paper, seen by
IPS, recommends special efforts to “strengthen EU credibility”. It says that “coherence
needs to be assured” between the EU’s stance against torture during its
foreign policy work and its own track record on protecting human rights
within the Union’s own borders. “Full respect” for human rights should be
guaranteed when formulating policies designed to fight terrorism, and
expulsion of foreigners should not occur in cases where there is a likelihood
they will be tortured, persecuted or murdered once they return to their home
countries, the paper adds. David Miliband, the British
foreign secretary, confessed in February that two CIA planes used in the
kidnapping and torture programme had landed in Diego Garcia, a
British-controlled island in the Indian Ocean, in 2002. This was a reversal
of previous denials by the London government that CIA flights had landed on
British territory. Several other EU
governments, including Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Ireland and Italy have been
accused of allowing their countries be used by the CIA for covert operations.
Poland and Romania have both been criticised by the European Commission for
their reluctance to provide information about claims that the CIA ran secret
detention centres on their soil. A 2007 report by an inquiry
committee in the European Parliament concluded that at least 1,245 CIA
flights passed through European airspace or stopped at the continent’s
airports between the end of 2001 and the end of 2005. Claude Moraes, a British Labour
politician who sat on the Parliament’s committee, said that the result of the
EU’s collusion with the CIA is “a credibility gap when we lecture other
countries about torture. “The allegations are not
going away,” he added, referring to reports in late April that the British
security service MI5 had “outsourced” torture of United Kingdom citizens to
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI). Several British nationals
arrested in Pakistan have been quoted as saying they were severely beaten by
ISI agents before being interrogated by men believed to work for MI5. Chloe Davies from Reprieve,
an organisation that has carried out detailed research into the CIA’s
activities, said that Europe’s reputation as a defender of human rights has
been tarnished. “Little by little European
powers’ collusion in the kidnap, rendition and torture of terrorist suspects
is coming to light,” she said. “We now know that the CIA operated ‘black
sites’ in Poland, Romania and apparently even on British territory in Diego
Garcia. “On many occasions CIA
aircraft have been allowed to land on or cross European territory, en route
to the kidnap and rendition of ghost prisoners to torture in secret prisons
in countries like Syria, Jordan and Egypt. In addition European governments
have allowed hundreds of prisoners to be ferried through their jurisdiction
to illegal imprisonment, torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
in Guantanamo Bay (the U.S.-run camp in Cuba).” The internal EU paper also
recognises that there has been criticism of flaws in the EU rules aimed at
preventing the export of equipment used for torture or the death penalty. While these rules were
introduced in 2005, a report by Amnesty International published last year
found that loopholes in them meant that spiked batons known as ’sting sticks’
used by the Chinese police and ‘hanging ropes’ used for executions in Sri
Lanka, India, and Trinidad and Tobago could still be traded. Since the Amnesty report was
issued, the British government has undertaken to ban export of spiked batons
and to work with other EU governments to curb the export of torture tools not
explicitly covered by the 2005 rules. Amnesty had cited examples of
British-made hanging ropes being used to execute prisoners in Trinidad and
Tobago and of handcuffs engraved ‘made in England’ used to shackle detainees
in Guantanamo Bay to walls and ceilings. External link: http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-terrorism/renditions-ruin-the-eu-case/3351/ |