Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-26-Speech-3-204"
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"en.20070926.17.3-204"2
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"Mr President, I would describe what we have experienced during the so-called 'war on terror' as a method of 'outsourcing' human rights abuses.
People are being detained in Guantánamo, where they are deprived of their most fundamental rights. People have been handed over to torture regimes because others obviously don't want to get their hands dirty. Secret prisons have been operated, as President Bush himself has admitted, and Europe's governments have simply looked away as the CIA has committed systematic human rights abuses on their sovereign territory.
The Council of Europe and this House have not remained silent in the face of these monstrous events; instead, they have gathered the facts, investigated the abuses and criticised them clearly and unequivocally. Dick Marty has worked with very great commitment here, and I would like to express my thanks to him. The report by our colleague Mr Fava, which was supported by my group, calls, as a matter of urgency, for a shift away from the practices which have now come to light, but what is happening instead?
In the case of Khaled el-Masri, for example, my own government kowtowed to the US Government only a few days ago. It is refusing to forward to the US administration the Munich prosecutors' request for the extradition of the 13 CIA agents accused of abducting Mr el-Masri. Why? Simply because merely submitting this request would annoy Washington.
I have no objection to my own country and the EU joining forces with the US to combat the threat of terrorism, but does this mean that kidnapping and torture are no longer crimes? Surely CIA agents cannot be given carte blanche to do whatever they want? Is this really the kind of transatlantic security zone that the German Minister of the Interior has just been talking about?
Our fundamental values – and above all the comprehensive protection of human rights – cannot be put up for grabs in this so-called war on terror. The European Parliament and the Council of Europe have rightly underlined this fact, and I expect the Council and the Commission also to uphold this principle without restrictions and, above all, to be guided by it in their actions. Let me say that what I have heard from the Council today is far from adequate. I really do expect the Council to act in accordance with the principles it itself has formulated and to follow up on the recommendations made by the European Parliament."@en1
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