By Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe <03/04/06>
It is important that the Council of Europe is investigating activities in Europe of the US security service. Illegal arrests, enforced transport of wrongfully detained people, secret places of detention and brutal interrogation methods are all violations of human rights. European countries should not accept these methods and, even less, facilitate such activities.
Terrorism is an evil which strikes at our democratic values, not least the right to life and other human rights. It should be condemned and fought, but we should not – repeat: not - use the same methods as the terrorists themselves. The struggle against terrorism must be conducted with legal means and with full respect for human rights standards.
That has not been the case after 11 September 2001. The US security service has been given extraordinary powers. Aliens are kidnapped and taken to Guantánamo or to secret prisons in other countries, or handed over to security services which practice torture and with which the CIA collaborates closely - as in the case of the two Egyptians who were deported from Sweden.
Detainees are not given any possibility to challenge their detention or even communicate with a lawyer. They have been placed outside any jurisdiction, in a sort of legal “black hole”. Some of them have been taken to secret places of detention. The US government does not even recognise the obligation to account for the names of those brought away.
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http://www.coe.int/T/Commissioner/Viewpoints/060304_en.asp
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