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Tuesday, 3 February 2009 - Strasbourg OJ edition

Resettlement of Guantánamo prisoners - Alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners (debate)
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  Cem Özdemir (Verts/ALE).(DE) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the prison camp at Guantánamo has become a symbol of contempt for human rights and the rule of law. The new US president Barack Obama has given out an equally powerful and essential message by ordering the end of the military tribunals in Guantánamo and promising to close the camp within a year.

However, it is not only the United States of America which has lost credibility as a result of its contempt for human rights in the war against terror. Our European governments cannot disclaim responsibility, as the Temporary Committee of the European Parliament on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners established in its report in February 2007. This exposes the double standards of many countries in the European Union, who rightly demand that candidate states uphold human rights, but themselves trample on human rights within the European Union.

The European Union also has the responsibility of playing an active role in the process of finding a joint solution for all the prisoners who are no longer under suspicion and who cannot return to their home countries. This applies specifically to Germany which can, and should, help to make the acceptance of refugees a possibility. We must not repeat the mistake we made in the case of the German Turk from Bremen, Murat Kurnaz, who wrongly spent four years in Guantánamo Bay.

The new beginning in Washington is an opportunity for us to send a clear signal that human rights must not be eroded in the war against terror.

 
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