Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-14-Speech-3-014"
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"en.20070214.2.3-014"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mr Vice-President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by thanking in particular our rapporteur, Mr Fava, for the work he has put in, but also Mr Coelho, the chairman of our committee, and the members of the committee secretariat, who have done a splendid job. In doing this work, the committee has also afforded us a good example of good and successful cooperation with the Council of Europe and its special investigator, Mr Dick Marty. Our common effort also, wherever possible, involved national committees of inquiry, NGOs, the media – representing the fourth estate – and sometimes also cooperation with the executive, although we were, unfortunately enough, working against it for much of the time.
I want to take this opportunity to express my amazement at the way in which the Polish Government – the government of one of our Member States – treated the members of the committee like emissaries from the Warsaw Pact. It would appear that not everyone quite understands that membership of the European Union not only confers rights, but also involves the assumption of responsibilities. Those who have nothing to hide do not behave in such a fashion.
Perhaps what our committee has come up with should also result in us doing more serious thinking about how to protect human rights within the European Union, for, after all, the
does not cease to apply once a country’s accession is accomplished. I do not doubt that there is no shortage of things to be cleared up in my own country, the Federal Republic of Germany – the case of Abu Zammar, for example, in which it is evident that information supplied by the German authorities to the American secret services resulted in his abduction from Casablanca, in Morocco, and his rendition to Syria, where he was confined to a torture prison and interrogated by, among others, the German secret services. I would also remind you of the El-Masri case, which came to the committee’s attention; both Mr El-Masri and his lawyer are still waiting for an apology from the USA, and light still needs to be shed on the role of the former interior minister of the Federal Republic of Germany in it. Finally, I would also ask you to recall the case of Murat Kurnaz, whom the committee also interviewed. His lawyer has made serious accusations of mistreatment by members of the German armed forces in Afghanistan, and also of what appears to be the prevention of his earlier release, and I do not doubt that our counterparts in the German parliament will be investigating them. What one can say with certainty, though, is that neither the present German Government nor its predecessor have shown a great deal of empathy with him.
In all these cases, I am confident that the Members of the
will do what they have to do with great care. The case that certainly had a particular impact on our committee was that of Maher Arar from Canada, which clearly showed how little security is enhanced by statements extracted under torture, and I am very glad to hear that he has been promised compensation. I do wonder, though, just what this compensation will do to restore to him the rights and the physical health he has lost.
Consequences must also be drawn as regards those detainees who still remain in Guantanamo Bay, the Uigurs, Uzbeks and Saudi Arabians who cannot return to their countries because those countries do not recognise human rights. This is where we, in the European Union, have the chance to make our contribution by affirming that we have understood, that we are ready to learn from the mistakes of the past.
In conclusion, then, this is not an exercise in anti-Americanism or in naivety in the fight against terrorism. Put simply and bluntly, this is about the values shared on both sides of the Atlantic, among which are democracy and human rights."@en1
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