AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has called on the Government to establish an independent inquiry to investigate all allegations that aircraft involved in so-called “rendition” have passed through Irish airspace or airports.
Speaking at the launch of a new report on European states’ role in “rendition” and secret detention, the executive director of Amnesty’s Irish section, Colm O’Gorman, said the Government had not taken “meaningful steps” to discover whether Ireland was being used for the practice.
“It has responded to growing evidence of the renditions spiderweb by saying, in effect, that individuals must themselves identify and present ‘evidence’ to their local gardaí. It has ignored international calls for an independent inquiry to be held into Ireland’s role in renditions,” Mr O’Gorman said.
“Instead of taking concrete preventative measures, our Government has continued to rely on discredited US assurances.”
He added that US assurances to Britain were recently shown to be “worthless” when British foreign secretary David Miliband announced that information from Washington had “just come to light” confirming that the UK territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean had been used for renditions. This contradicted earlier reassurances that the territory had not been used.
Amnesty’s report, State of Denial, highlights six cases that it believes demonstrate the pattern of illegal apprehension and transfer to unlawful detention and torture of victims.
The role of European states has ranged from active participation to tacit collusion, it states.
Some governments have permitted CIA flights headed for “rendition” circuits to use European airports and airspace, while other have hosted secret detention centres or “black sites”.
It cites a number of cases where aircraft carrying suspects allegedly landed in Ireland. A Boeing 737 that “rendered” Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese origin, from Macedonia to Afghanistan at the end of 2003 stopped off in Ireland, Cyprus and Spain, according to the report.
The human rights group also believes that the aircraft that took the Saudi-born Khaled al-Maqtari from Baghdad to Kabul in January 2004 had left Shannon the previous day. Mr al-Maqtari, who moved from his home in Yemen to Iraq in early 2003, was detained by US forces in Falluja the following January.
In its recommendations, Amnesty calls on European governments to publicly condemn “rendition” and secret detention as unlawful and initiate independent investigations into allegations of involvement of its agents or territories in “renditions”, secret detention or enforced disappearances.
They should also bring to justice anyone suspected of being responsible for human rights violations in connection with these practices, introduce measures to ensure such violations cannot recur and ensure the accountability of intelligence agencies.
