House of Commons - Foreign Affairs

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Written Evidence

Submission from Mr Andrew Tyrie MP, Chairman, All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition

I am writing about Diego Garcia in my role as Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition.

I welcome the Committee's inquiry into the Overseas Territories. The British Indian Ocean Territory (BlOT) is one such territory, of which Diego Garcia is the largest island. I note that your stated aims include transparency and accountability in the Overseas Territories; the application of international treaties, conventions and other agreements to the Overseas Territories; and human rights in the Overseas Territories.

THE ALL PARTY PARLIAMENTARY GROUP ON RENDITION

1. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition was formed in December 2005. Since we began, we have collected a considerable amount of information on many aspects of the practice, and our work has been referred to in numerous reports, both in the UK and internationally. I enclose a Legal Opinion by Professor James Crawford, and a briefing paper by the New York University Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice, which may be of use to your Committee.

2. The existence of a rendition and secret detention programme operated by the US is no longer in dispute. On 5 December 2005 US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated: "[f]or decades, the United States and other countries have used "renditions" to transport terrorist suspects from the country where they were captured to their home country or to other countries where they can be questioned, held, or brought to justice".[101] President George Bush confirmed that this programme involved secret detention on 6 September 2006: "[m]any specifics of this program, including where these detainees have been held and the details of their confinement, cannot be divulged".[102] It is clear that in the course of this programme many detainees have faced a real risk of torture, or of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, prohibited under international law.

DIEGO GARCIA

3. There have been repeated allegations that the US has used the British territory of Diego Garcia in its rendition programme. These allegations are based on statements made by former US armed forces personnel, from numerous NGO reports,[103] and from the reports of international organisations. The Council of Europe report of 7 June 2007, "Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states" (Second Report), concluded:

104

4. In 2004 US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Lawrence DiRita was asked if there were secret detention facilities on Diego Garcia. "I don't know. I simply don't know" he replied.[105] Retired United States General Barry McCaffrey has twice stated that the US Government is holding detainees at Diego Garcia, most recently in December 2006.[106]

5. There have also been two specific allegations made regarding the use of Diego Garcia in the US rendition programme. The first is based on the landing at Diego Garcia of a plane linked to so-called "rendition circuits", N379P, on 13 September 2002.[107] This plane has also been connected to the renditions of British residents Jamil el-Banna, Bisher al-Rawi, and British national Martin Mubanga.[108] The second surrounds reports that ships in or near to the territorial waters of Diego Garcia have been used to hold detainees, or otherwise facilitate the rendition programme.

US ASSURANCES

6. The Government has repeatedly relied on US assurances on this issue, demonstrated in answers to Written Questions on this issue on 26 October 2006: Column 2076W, by Dr Kim Howells MP:

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7. This reliance on US assurances was most recently confirmed by the Foreign Office in a Written Answer on 11 October 2007,[110] and by the then Prime Minister in a letter of 26 March 2007 to the Intelligence and Security Committee, quoted in its Report into Rendition".[111]

8. US assurances are not enough to satisfy the UK's international legal obligations however, which arise independently of those of the US. There is a duty to investigate allegations of torture. The Legal Opinion of Professor James Crawford, commissioned and published by the APPG, makes this clear:

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9. The Intelligence and Security Committee found "a lack of regard, on the part of the U.S., for UK concerns".[113] The Committee continued:

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10. Clearly, the UK Government's reliance on US assurances on this matter is unsatisfactory, and addresses neither UK obligations in international law, nor the lack of regard by the US for explicit UK policy. It is apparent from the 11 October 2007 Written Answer that the Government has not sought to verify these assurances independently.[115]

SUGGESTED ACTION BY THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

11. It would be of immense help if the Committee could use its investigative powers to try and establish whether the US military facility on Diego Garcia has ever been used, or is being used, to facilitate the renditions or the transport of high value detainees. Specifically:

— have any detainees been rendered through Diego Garcia;

— have any planes refuelled at Diego Garcia, on the way to or from transporting a detainee who has been the subject of a `rendition';

— have any planes passed through the airspace of Diego Garcia, on the way to or from transporting a detainee who has been the subject of a "rendition";

— have any detainees been held onboard ships in or close to the territorial waters of Diego Garcia;

— have the military facilities on Diego Garcia been used to facilitate the US rendition programme in any way;

— have the military facilities on Diego Garcia been used to facilitate the US High Value Terrorist Detainee Programme in any way?

12. Should the Committee determine that the answer to any of these questions is "yes" it would also be important for the Committee to establish the extent of the UK Government knowledge of, and complicity in, the relevant acts.

13. Whatever the answer to any of the questions above it would be immensely helpful if the Committee could establish:

— what investigations the UK Government has carried out to verify US assurances in this matter, and;

— what safeguards are in place to ensure the UK adheres to its international obligations relating to this issue, independent of the assurances provided by the US Government.

14. I recognize the difficulties your Committee has encountered in investigating rendition in the past. Other investigations have had similar problems. The European Parliament's Temporary Committee on the Alleged Use of European Countries by the CIA for the Transportation and Illegal Detention of Prisoners "[d]eplore[d] the manner in which the UK Government, as represented by its Minister for Europe, cooperated with the Temporary Committee".[116]

15. Your Committee has made a number of important recommendations in past investigations. In the Committee's Third Report of the 2006-07 session you recommended that the Government seek from the US a confirmation of whether aircraft used in rendition operations have called at airfields in the United Kingdom or in the Overseas Territories en route to or from a rendition, and that it make a clear statement of its policy on this practice.[117] The Government refused.[118]

16. As you know, other organisations and Committees have also investigated and reported on rendition in the last year, including the Intelligence and Security Committee, the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament. The Intelligence and Security Committee concluded that the UK may have been complicit in at least two renditions. Other organisations have come to similar conclusions. All have investigated allegations of UK complicity in the US rendition programme and the inadequacy of relying on US assurances for the purposes of meeting the UK's international law obligations. Bearing these findings in mind it is now particularly important that Parliament establishes whether, and if so, to what extent Diego Garcia has played a role in rendition.

I am placing this letter in the public domain.

15 October 2007

http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/migrants/docs/eu-counter terrorism.pdf

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/intelligence/

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A6-2007-0020&language=EN&MODE=XML

101 http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/57602.htm Back

102 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060906-3.html Back

103 http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engpol300032006; Back

104 Council of Europe Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, "Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states: second report", 7 June 2007, para 70. http://assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2007/Emarty_20070608_NoEmbargo.pdf Back

105 http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engramr511772005 Back

106 http://www.reprieve.org.uk/Council_of_Europe_Report_Diego_Garcia_08.06.07.htm Back

107 Source: Reprieve flight logs. Back