EU must act over "war on terror" jails

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 14th Nov 2005

The European Parliament will this evening quiz the European Commission over the alleged existence of secret CIA internment camps in Eastern Europe, possibly Poland and Romania.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, the Parliament's co-rapporteur on Guantánamo Bay, said:

"I expect justice Commissioner Frattini to give us not only comprehensive information in response to these allegations, but also a proposal under the human rights clauses of the EU treaty for action to bring abuses to an end."

"Under no circumstances must the EU allow itself to be implicated in the most barbaric practices of the misguided US "war on terror", which reek of hypocrisy and bring the West into disrepute."

Following reports in the Washington Post of a secret network of secret CIA internment camps in eastern Europe, Human Rights Watch declared that it has a "high degree of confidence that such facilities exist in at least Poland and Romania."

In 2002 US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally approved the use of maltreatment and torture as interrogation techniques at offshore camps. These include 'stress positions', 'removal of clothing' and 'using detainee phobias' such as fear of dogs. Another practice is said to be 'waterboarding' where a person's head is immersed in water such that they think they are going to drown.

Sarah Ludford added:

"With the US Congress poised to override a Supreme Court judgement and bar any claims for habeas corpus, the EU must demonstrate in contrast that its own rhetoric about upholding the rule of law actually means something."

Notes

Baroness Sarah Ludford will speak in the European Parliament debate on reports of the existence of secret internment camps, following a statement by the European Commission. She wrote to Commissioner Frattini on 3rd November, urging immediate action be taken to investigate the allegations. A patron of the Guantánamo Bay Human Rights Commission, Baroness Ludford strongly supported the ultimately successfully campaign for the release of 9 British citizens from Guantánamo Bay, and continues to call for legal treatment of the British residents and refugees still held.

Sarah Ludford gave an interview to the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme on the subject, on 15th November 2005. Click here to listen again: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/ or go to the "speeches" section of this site for a full transcript