Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January-June 2007 AI Index EUR 01/001/2004 AI Index EUR 01/005/2004 AI Index EUR 01/002/2005 Concerns in Europe and Central Asia: July – December 2003 Concerns in Europe and Central Asia: January – June 2004 Concerns in Europe and Central Asia: July – December 2004 PARTNERS IN CRIME: EUROPE’S ROLE IN US RENDITIONS Europe’s governments have repeatedly denied their complicity in the US programme of renditions – an unlawful practice in which numerous men have been illegally detained and secretly flown to countries where they have suffered additional crimes, including torture and enforced disappearance. As evidence of this programme has come to light, however, it has become clear that many European governments have adopted a “see no evil, hear no evil” approach when it comes to renditions fights using their territory, and that some states have been actively involved in individual rendition cases (see Partners in crime: Europe’s role in US renditions, AI Index: EUR 01/008/2006). European airports and airspace have been used by planes operated or leased by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that have repeatedly been linked to renditions. Agents of a few European countries have participated in the apprehension of people destined for rendition or in the interrogation of such detainees once they have been transferred to countries where torture is known to be rife. Reports suggest that the USA may have operated secret detention facilities, known as “black sites”, in eastern Europe. The rendition programme has also highlighted that foreign intelligence agencies operate in Europe outside the rule of law and without accountability. Inquiries into complicity in the US-led programme of renditions were launched in 2005 by both the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, and have been actively pursued since – including in the Amnesty International XI face of obstructions governments. from some New report by Council of Europe on secret detentions and renditions On 8 June 2007 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights released the second report of its inquiry, led by Swiss Senator Dick Marty, into secret detentions and renditions in Europe (the first report had been issued on 12 June 2006). The report confirmed that the CIA operated secret detention centres in Poland and Romania, and perhaps in other Council of Europe member states, between 2003 and 2005. These secret facilities formed part of the “high-value detainee” programme, in which terror suspects were subjected to enforced disappearance, which had been an open secret until US President Bush confirmed its existence in September 2006. Among the most interesting findings of the report were that the CIA exploited North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military agreements to help it run the secret prisons, adding that the CIA conducted “clandestine operations under the NATO framework”. With CIA assistance, military intelligence agencies in countries, including Poland and Romania, disguised the use of secret flights, operations and detention facilities from the days immediately following 11 September 2001 until at least the end of 2005. Moreover, the report made clear that collusion with the US at the highest levels of government came not just from the countries most directly involved in the secret detention programme, but from all the members and partners of NATO, who signed up to terms that allowed free reign to CIA operations. AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007