Amnesty says EU ‘failing’ over CIA renditions

BBC News, Nov 15, 2010

Poland is one of the countries accused of taking in terrorism suspects for interrogation

Amnesty International has accused the EU of failing to hold its members to account for their role in the detention of terrorism suspects by the CIA.

It calls for European governments to ensure justice for suspects who were interrogated under the programme known as extraordinary rendition.

Countries including Poland have been accused of hosting secret CIA prisons.
Many suspects are alleged to have been taken to other countries where they were tortured or disappeared.

Several European nations have been accused of co-operating by hosting secret CIA prisons or allowing CIA flights carrying the prisoners to use airports on their way to other countries.

In a report entitled Open Secret: Mounting Evidence of Europe’s Complicity in Rendition and Secret Detention, published on Monday, Amnesty compiles what it says is the latest evidence of European countries’ involvement in the CIA’s programmes.
“The EU has utterly failed to hold member states accountable for the abuses they’ve committed,” said Nicholas Berger, director of Amnesty International’s European institutions office.

“These abuses occurred on European soil. We simply can’t allow Europe to join the US in becoming an ‘accountability-free’ zone. The tide is slowly turning with some countries starting investigations, but much more needs to be done.”

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