UK rapped for turning blind eye to 'torture' flights by CIA

Published on Wednesday 29 November 2006 00:37

THE government has been given a stinging rebuke by the European Parliament over its failure to aid an investigation into the CIA's transportation of terrorist suspects and their alleged torture in secret jails in Europe.

Geoff Hoon, the Europe minister, was singled out over his "deplorably" poor co-operation.

CIA-operated flights have made 170 stopovers at British airports, including Prestwick. The UK and ten other EU countries were criticised by a committee of MEPs for complicity in the practice, known as rendition.

Baroness Sarah Ludford, a Liberal Democrat MEP and vice-chairwoman of the committee, said the UK had turned a "blind eye" to torture.

"Geoff Hoon's naming and shaming is an indictment of the unhelpful attitude of the British government, which prefers to leave unanswered the burning questions about its alleged complicity in CIA rendition and torture. Westminster must now call the Blair government properly to account," she said.

Inquiries by the European Union and Council of Europe were launched partly in response to press reports that the United States ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania.

Both countries strongly deny that, but yesterday's report complained of a lack of co-operation from the Polish government and regretted Romania's "lack of willingness to investigate in depth".

"If the EU's aspirations to be a 'human rights community' have any meaning whatsoever, there must now be a forceful EU response to this strong evidence that the CIA abducted, illegally imprisoned and transported alleged terrorists in Europe, while European governments, including the UK, either turned a blind eye or actively colluded with the United States," the report said.

The final draft also criticised a string of top EU officials, including Javier Solana, the foreign policy chief, along with the governments of

Poland, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus.

Human rights campaigners also voiced outrage yesterday after it emerged that no charges are to be brought over US weapons flights that touched down at Prestwick. Earlier this year, two chartered A310 Airbus flights taking bunker-busting bombs to Israel stopped off there, apparently without following the proper procedure.

The flights, which landed for refuelling, were carrying laser-guided weapons.

The decision by the Crown Office to take no action against the airline involved, the US freight carrier Kalitta, comes after it received a report from the Civil Aviation Authority.

However, Rosemary Burnett, Amnesty International's programme director for Scotland, said:

"It is definitely a breach of human rights when Prestwick Airport is used to transfer arms during a time of war."