Amnesty seeks rendition 'honesty'

Amnesty protesters in Vienna ahead of next week's EU-US summit

The human rights organisation Amnesty International is asking European leaders to end to what it calls a "see no evil" policy on CIA renditions.

A report issued ahead of this week's EU summit accuses seven states of breaking international law by helping the US fly terrorism suspects to third countries.

European governments have persistently denied any wrongdoing.

But Amnesty says the denials damage Europe's credibility as the EU pushes the US to close its Guantanamo camp.

'Criminal responsibility'

"Europe often presents itself as a beacon for human rights. The uncomfortable truth is that without Europe's help, some men would not now be nursing torture wounds in prison cells in various parts of the world," says the Amnesty report, Partners in Crime.

Without information provided by European intelligence agencies, some of the victims of rendition may not have been abducted in the first place Read the full Amnesty report (660K)

It focuses on six alleged cases, which it says present overall "irrefutable evidence of European complicity in the unlawful practice of rendition".

It says the stories leave little doubt that Bosnia-Hercegovina, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Sweden, Turkey and the UK broke international law by facilitating transfers of people to countries where there is a risk of serious human rights abuses.

Individual officials in these countries should be held criminally responsible, the report says.

It is the first time that Amnesty International has stated that EU states broke the law.

The charge follows the accusation by Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty last week that authorities in several European countries "actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities".

'Hypocrisy'

The director of Amnesty's EU office, Dick Oosting, told the BBC the EU was being "absolutely hypocritical" in pressing the US to close the Guantanamo detention centre when it had been "complicit in letting people end up there".

The denials are wearing very, very thin Dick Oosting, Amnesty International EU office Euro MPs urge Guantanamo closure

"We want recognition that this was wrong and should not happen again - governments owning up to mis-steps in these cases," he said.

"The denials are wearing very, very thin."

The EU is expected to put pressure on US President George W Bush to close the Guantanamo camp at an EU-US summit in Vienna next week.

An open letter to the EU summit, accompanying the report, asks leaders to declare renditions unacceptable, to commit their countries to full co-operation with ongoing inquiries and to prevent the use of EU airspace for rendition.