Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-14-Speech-3-139"
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"en.20051214.14.3-139"2
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"Mr President, we do of course take extremely seriously the case that we are discussing today, which has to do with possible abuses that touch the very heart of our democracy and our opinions on human rights. The statements we have received from the US so far are unsatisfactory. The story does not stand up to scrutiny. I do not want to enter into the detail of it, but the explanation by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, does, indeed, beg more questions, to which we want answers.
Something to which reference has already been made in this Chamber, and which, to my mind, plays a significant role, is the fact that we are also concerned about the USA’s attitude to the fight against international terrorism. In Guantanamo Bay, the United States has, since early 2002, been detaining hundreds of people without any form of trial or independent control. In the fight against terrorism, American politicians regularly talk about the need to use unconventional methods. The US has been known to apply its own rules in this respect.
Although the US administration assures us that it does not use torture and that all human rights are respected, it still adopts a hesitant attitude towards Senator McCain’s proposals to improve anti-torture legislation and to declare it fully applicable also outside of the US.
The European Union has the duty to guarantee the letter and spirit of the treaties and guard our values. There is currently insufficient information available to assume that nothing is wrong, but the European Parliament also has its own responsibility. We have to consider the possible involvement of Member States and future EU Member States in the matters in hand, and, perhaps, the European Union’s relations with the United States. As a directly-elected institution, we in this House have a duty to find out whether there is any truth in the allegations.
The first impressions gleaned by the Council of Europe’s rapporteur, Dick Marty, strengthen us in the belief that an inquiry of our own is certainly not a luxury. We should therefore, as a matter of urgency, launch our own inquiry, possibly in cooperation with the Council of Europe, so as to try to find real answers to the questions we are still left with, whereby a temporary committee should be set up as soon as possible, to be followed by a real inquiry committee if that turns out to be necessary."@en1
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