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Hammarberg: Europe must come clean on secret detention and torture of terrorist suspects
In a comment article published Monday, the Commissioner for Human Rights has urged Europe’s governments to explain their involvement in the CIA’s secret detention and torture of terrorist suspects.Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg writes of unanswered questions which relate to Europe’s support for America after the 11 September terrorist attack on the country.
He states : “At the height of the ‘War on Terror,’ Poland, Romania and Lithuania extended quite extraordinary permissions and protections to their American partners – while respecting conditions of total secrecy.“Today, years later, darkness still enshrouds those who authorised and ran the Black Sites on European territories.”
The Commissioner adds: “The CIA’s partner agencies in various foreign countries – including across Europe – lent their close collaboration. The value of the intelligence produced by this network has been questioned; but one clear result was a pattern of abusive and excessive actions in flagrant violation of human rights.”
“The full truth must now be established and guarantees given that such forms of co-operation will never be repeated. Effective investigations are imperative and long overdue. The purported cost to transatlantic relations of pursuing such accountability cannot be compared to the damage inflicted on our European system of human rights protection by allowing ourselves to be kept in the dark.”, he said
According to him, « Romania has also been found complicit in CIA secret detentions. A CIA Black Site was opened near Bucharest on 23 September 2003, immediately after the closure of the Polish facility. It is known that at least one of the HVDs from Poland was delivered directly to Baneasa Airport in the middle of the night. CIA operations continued in Romania for over two years.
Unfortunately, the Romanian authorities have demonstrated little genuine will to uncover the whole truth of what happened on Romanian territory. The only official response has been denial, supported by a Senate Committee report refuting all allegations. A prosecutorial investigation, or a public inquiry with the power to compel classified evidence, must no longer be avoided ».
Concluding his article,Thomas Hammarberg thinks that « Accountability must be established. At the height of the “war on terror”, Poland, Romania and Lithuania extended quite extraordinary permissions and protections to their American partners – while respecting conditions of total secrecy. Today, years later, darkness still enshrouds those who authorised and ran the Black Sites on European territories.
The full truth must now be established and guarantees given that such forms of co-operation will never be repeated. Effective investigations are imperative and long overdue. The purported cost to transatlantic relations of pursuing such accountability cannot be compared to the damage inflicted on our European system of human rights protection by allowing ourselves to be kept in the dark. »