|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
|
August 4th,
2009 - Ministers Accused of Cover-Up over Claims of UK Complicity in Torture |
|
Ministers Accused of
Cover-Up over Claims of UK Complicity in Torture Tory MP David Davis says he has no doubts there have been ‘clear
violations of the UK’s international legal obligations’ By Richard Norton-Taylor & Andrew Sparrow The Guardian August 4, 2009 Ministers were today accused
of a "cover-up" following the publication of a parliamentary report
calling for an independent inquiry into allegations of security and
intelligence agency complicity in torture. In a stinging report,
largely prompted by disclosures in the Guardian, the joint committee on human
rights says that in view of the detailed allegations, ministers can no longer
get away with repeating standard denials. It says the government must
immediately publish instructions given to MI5 and MI6 officers on the
detention and interrogation of suspects abroad. The report falls short of
accusing the security and intelligence agencies of complicity in torture,
which would breach British domestic and international law. But today the Tory MP David
Davis said he had "no doubts" that there had been "clear
violations of the UK's international legal obligations". Andrew Dismore, the
committee's Labour chairman, said: "If the allegations are true, they
amount to complicity. They have not been tested but given the scale and
number simply to issue a blanket denial is not adequate. That is why we are
calling for an independent inquiry." Among a list of actions that
it says would amount to complicity in torture, the report includes "the
provision of questions to such a foreign intelligence service to be put to a
detainee who has been, is being, or likely to be tortured". It also includes "the
systematic reception of information known or thought likely to have been
obtained from detainees subjected to torture". It adds: "For the
purposes of state responsibility for complicity in torture ... 'complicity'
means simply one state giving assistance to another state in the commission
of torture, or acquiescing in such torture, in the knowledge ... of the
circumstances of the torture which is or has been taking place." The Guardian passed to the
committee the names of seven out of 11 British or dual nationals detained in
Pakistan where British agencies, it says, colluded in, or knew about, their torture
or mistreatment. The newspaper also alerted
the committee to the case of Binyam Mohamed, a UK resident who, the high
court has heard, was held incommunicado in Pakistan before being tortured in
Morocco, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay. In a judgment revised after
the disclosure of fresh evidence from MI5, the high court said on Friday it
was now clear that MI5 "knew the circumstances" of Mohamed's secret
detention at "a covert location", now known to be Morocco. In their judgment, Lord
Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones also revealed that MI5 sent the
"US authorities" – believed to be the CIA – questions to ask
Mohamed. Over a period of more than two years, MI5 received five reports from
the US about Mohamed and gave the US a list of 70 further questions to be put
to him. The high court judgment
contains evidence that appears to come clearly under the complicity criteria
spelled out in today's report. Today's report says:
"If the government engaged in an arrangement with a country that was
known to torture in a widespread way and turned a blind eye to what was going
on, systematically receiving and/or relying on the information but not
physically participating in the torture, that might well cross the line into
complicity. "Our experience over
the past year is that ministers are determined to avoid parliamentary
scrutiny and accountability on these matters, refusing requests to give oral
evidence; providing a standard answer to some of our written questions, which
fails to address the issues; and ignoring other questions entirely. "Ministers should not
be able to act in this way. The fact that they can do so confirms that the
system for ministerial accountability for security and intelligence matters
is woefully deficient ... There is now no other way to restore public
confidence in the intelligence services than by setting up an independent
inquiry." Today, responding to the
report, Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis denied that the government was
covering anything up. "We don't have anything
to hide, but what we do have to say is that this is incredibly complicated.
It's very sensitive, and it's a balance between the highest standards of
human rights - and Britain will always fight to protect those - and sometimes
protecting the security of our citizens," he told BBC Radio 4's Today
programme. But Davis, the former shadow
home secretary, said, "telling the Pakistanis that an individual suspect
is arriving, encouraging them to arrest him, providing information, providing
questions" were clear violations of the UK's international legal
obligations. Davis said he was sure that
both the prime minister, Gordon Brown, and his predecessor, Tony Blair, had
seen the evidence of UK complicity. "Of course they will
have done. The intelligence and security committee actually wrote a letter to
the current prime minister some months ago. The joint committee on human
rights has asked for that to be published. He won't publish that. "They've asked for them
to publish the guidelines given to the intelligence agencies by ministers in
the period between 9/11 and now. They've refused to do that either. "All of this smacks of
a cover-up. If they've got nothing to hide, why not publish the
guidelines?" Today a poll published by
the PoliticsHome website suggests that 65% of voters think the UK's
"moral authority on the international stage" has been weakened over
the last 10 years by government foreign policy. That view is held by a
majority of Labour voters, Conservative voters and Liberal Democrat voters. Only 8% of respondents said
foreign policy had enhanced the moral authority of the UK since 1999. External link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/04/torture-complicity-cover-up |