EP committee says EU governments colluded with CIA rendition
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Brussels, Jan 23, IRNA
EU-CIA-Rendition
The European Parliament's temporary committee on CIA flights and prisoner renditions (TDIP) called Tuesday on the EU Council to open an independent investigation and impose sanctions on EU member states which violated human rights by colluding with CIA rendition in Europe.
Over one thousand CIA-operated flights used European airspace from 2001 to 2005 and temporary secret detention facilities 'may have been located at US military bases' in Europe, said the TDIP in its final report which was adopted with 28 votes in favor against 17 with 3 abstentions.
According to the report, European countries have been 'turning a blind eye' to flights operated by the CIA which, 'on some occasions, were being used for extraordinary rendition or the illegal transportation of detainees'.
The rapporteur of the report, Italian MEP Giovanni Claudio Fava, told a press conference in Brussels this afternoon that they now expect the EU Council, which represents the governments of the 27-member EU, to start hearings and commission an independent investigation without delay, and, 'where necessary, impose sanctions on Member States in case of a serious and persistent breach'.
The TDIP which was formed in January 2005 said it rejects extraordinary renditions 'as an illegal instrument used by the USA in the fight against terrorism' and condemn the 'acceptance and concealing of the practice, on several occasions, by the secret services and governmental authorities of certain European countries'.
The president of the committee, Portuguese MEP Carlos Coelho, accused the EU foreign policy Chief Javier Solana of omissions and not telling the entire truth about the CIA rendition.
"Mr.Solana said he knew nothing about it. He clearly knew," Coelho told reporters, adding that the Council 'tried to lie to the European Parliament'.
At least 1,245 flights operated by the CIA flew into European airspace or stopped over at European airports between the end of 2001 and the end of 2005, said the report.
It mentions up to 21 well-documented cases of extraordinary rendition: rendition victims were transferred through a European country or were residents in a European State at the time of their kidnapping.
The report 'calls on the countries of Europe to compensate their innocent victims of extraordinary renditions'.
The report notes that the renditions investigated by the committee 'in the majority of cases involved incommunicado detention and torture' during interrogations as was confirmed by the victims -- or their lawyers.
The national governments specifically criticized for their unwillingness to cooperate with the EP's investigations were those of Austria, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the UK.
The report also gives detailed evidence of investigations of illegal rendition or CIA flight cases involving Germany, Sweden, Spain, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Turkey, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Bosnia and Romania.
The TDIP report will be put to the EP's plenary session on 14 February for approval.
Ignasi Guardans, coordinator of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group in the TDIP committee, told reporters that 'the report is fair in denouncing Council and Member States' failures of responsibility in terms of active and passive collaboration with extraordinary renditions to the CIA'.
The Greens in the EP in a statement said 'many member state governments have treated the EP Inquiry like and unwanted headache and hoped that, by keeping quiet or refusing to cooperate with the investigations, the ache would go away'.
Lastly, the report calls for the closure of Guantanamo and asks European countries 'to immediately seek the return of their citizens and residents who are being held illegally by US authorities'.
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