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Van Bommel urges UN enquiry into CIA prisons

9 December 2011

Van Bommel urges UN enquiry into CIA prisons

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel is urging the UN to launch an enquiry into secret CIA prisons in Europe. Van Bommel’s call comes after yesterday’s revelation of a secret detention facility in Romania. ‘For years we have been asking questions about secret prisons in which prisoners of the Americans may be suffering torture, yet on numerous occasions our government has denied their existence. Now it’s time to leave no stone unturned in this affair.’

CIA operatives have for years been using the cellar of an unremarkable office block in Bucharest as a secret prison for suspected terrorists, according to information revealed yesterday by former employees of the US intelligence service. This is the first time that the precise location of such a prison in Romania has been specified.

In the past the SP has repeatedly put questions to the government in relation to the matter of alleged CIA secret prisons, yet just as often their existence has been denied by successive Ministers of Foreign Affairs., with the government sheltering behind similar denials from the United States, Poland and Romania.

Harry van BommelIn the SP’s view this new revelation is one too many, once again underlining how a thorough enquiry must be carried out into the matter. “This means that European countries have assisted the Americans in abusing basic human rights,” says Van Bommel. “That’s why I now want to know how many more of these prisons there are and just what role they have been playing. The fight against terrorism is of immense importance, but when in this fight you consistently ride roughshod over the fundamental rights that you are seeking to protect, terrorism has already won.”

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