MP Antti Kaikkonen (ALDE Finland): Speech in Council of Europe 27th June 2007, Strasbourg

Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states

Mr President,

I would once again thank Mr. Marty for the serious and thorough report on secret detentions and illegal transfer of detainees. The report includes convincing arguments about the role of the CIA in Europe in the matter.

Mr Marty's team states that there is now enough evidence to state that secret detention facilities run by the CIA did exist in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania. That is to say that the war on terrorism has led some countries to commit serious violations of the core principles of the European Convention on Human Rights, including acts that can factually be classified as torture.

To make matters worse, the public attention has not led to increased cooperation in finding out what has actually been going on in the facilities, neither to public information about who have been detained nor for what reasons. Mr. Marty states that the fight against terrorism should not be used as an excuse for illegal acts. I do fully agree.

If the principles of rule of law, human rights and democracy are systematically being eroded by state practices it is hypocritical and vain to speak about these principles in any forums. The same applies to high declarations about common values if those values are not respected in practice.

There is no moral high ground any more if tough treatment of prisoners is factually torture and the vital information gained by these means is declared state secret. Information is power indeed and it should be used democratically.

To be fair, it is neither easy nor straightforward to balance the rights of individuals and collective security that the actions of individuals are threatening. However, if secrecy, torture and systematic covering up of illegal acts should become norms in democracies fighting terrorism, democratic nations are not any better than the terrorists they are fighting against.

There are no quick solutions to problems of which terrorist acts are symptoms of. If terrorism is effectively fought against, trust and cooperation between democracies is essential. The practices described by Mr. Marty decrease that common understanding.

Therefore, Mr. President, I fully support the report, the draft resolution and recommendation and think that they should be adopted.

Thank you.