By Bruno Waterfield - 19th June 2006
The Guantanamo Bay prison camp and CIA rendition flights will be raised at an EU-US summit in Vienna, Austria’s leader has pledged.
America’s war on terror and European concerns will cast a shadow over US President George W Bush’s meetings with EU leaders and officials on June 21.
Closer EU-US accord on Iran and a variety of bilateral economic issues is likely to be dominated by questions over Washington’s interpretation of human rights law.
The continued detention, and recent suicides, of terror suspects at the US Guantanamo base and CIA activities in Europe will be on agenda.
Probes by human rights watchdogs and the European parliament have focused on US abductions of individuals on, or using, European soil to detention centres including Guantanamo.
Speaking in the European parliament, Austrian Chanceller, and EU presidency holder, Wolfgang Schüssel said Europe “cannot turn a blind eye”.
“We cannot have an area where law does not apply. Whatever the measures that are applied, we cannot allow people to be abducted in this way and to go to secret prisons, detention centres or whatever terms might be used,” he said.
“That needs to be stated and said.”
The European commission will also raise the issue, while agreeing with Washington that terrorism is a global threat.
“We must be sure that in combating terrorism we do not ourselves damage our democratic and legal systems. Nobody should be in a legal vacuum,” the commission’s spokesman said on Monday.
MEPs have passed resolutions demanding that the EU calls for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
UK liberal MEP Sarah Ludford criticised the EU for standing “idly by” while three of her constituents were imprisoned indefinitely without trial.
“It is high time for EU leaders to jointly and formally insist that all detainees are either released or given a fair trial in accordance with international standards,” she said.
“Wednesday’s meeting with Bush provides the perfect opportunity for them to do just that, and I hope they will take it.”
Amnesty International backs the closure calls and is asking the EU “to demand full disclosure” of CIA activities.
“After more than four years, the EU finally seems ready to demand the closure of Guantanamo. It is a positive step,” said EU Amnesty spokeman Dick Oosting.
“But the EU cannot ignore other US detention centres and the complicity of its own member states in the rendition programme that sent people to Guantanamo and elsewhere.”
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