MEPs demand EU action on secret CIA prisons

STRASBOURG - MEPs investigating secret CIA prisons in Europe are demanding that member states take action on their evidence.

The evidence from the the parliament's temporary committee on CIA activities in Europe, presented on Wednesday in Strasbourg, concerns an interception by the Swiss satellite, Onyx, of a fax between the Egyptian foreign minister in Cairo and his ambassador in London.

According to MEPs, the interception reveals that 23 Afghan and Iraqi citizens are subject to interrogation on a daily basis at military centres in the Ukraine Romania, Kosovo and Macedonia.

“We have strong serious, specific evidence that a military base in the Ukraine was used to detain prisoners by the CIA,” said Italian socialist deputy Claudio Fava, co-leader of the temporary committee, at a press conference on Wednesday.

Further evidence reported by the committee includes a letter written by the head of the Ukrainian army to the head of the military garrison Makarov-1, ordering the construction of a detention centre in the garrison for ten prisoners and rooms for ten guards.

The temporary commmittee has also said that there is specific evidence that the Ukranian defence minister personally authorised a landing of a CIA aeroplane at a Ukrainian airport.

The committee said that there had been reports from airport staff of 130 landings and take-offs of this aeroplane, despite the fact that Eurocontrol was unable to provide evidence of any flight by this plane to the Ukranian airport.

“Something strange, something unusual was perhaps happening at this airport,” said Italian socialist Giulietto Chiesa, also on the temporary committee.

The temporary committee has asked parliament’s committee on civil liberties to produce an own-initiative report so that they can follow-up on the available evidence.

MEPs are however angry about the lack of response from the EU member states to the findings.

“We have had two successive council presidencies that have decided to do nothing, to listen to nobody, not to use the powers granted to them by the treaties…there has not been a single letter written, nor a hearing…we want the council to do something” said Fava.

"The impliction every time is that no country had anything to do with the secret renditions," he added.

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