Letter to the Rt Hon Sir John Stanley
MP from the Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Thank you for your letter of 7 May.
Following my statement to the House of 21 February
regarding the two cases of rendition through Diego Garcia in 2002,
you asked whether, since the signing of the memorandums of understanding
between the UK and the Governments of Afghanistan and Iraq, there
have been any transfers of persons detained by British Forces
in those countries to Guantanamo Bay On that occasion I undertook
to provide you with a written response. I apologise for the delay
in replying to you on this matter.
I understand that the Defence Secretary wrote
to you recently bringing to your attention the review of detention
practices in Iraq and Afghanistan that his department has recently
conducted. The review included an audit of the records relating
to persons captured by UK Forces and subsequently detained by
US Authorities. Both the Defence Secretary and I have confidence
in the processes currently in place to ensure that persons captured
by UK Forces and subsequently transferred to US authorities are
held in accordance with UK policy and legal obligations. No evidence
has been uncovered that anyone captured by the UK forces and detained
by the US forces has been either mistreated or unlawfully rendited
to Guantanamo Bay. I understand that the Defence Secretary has
undertaken to inform you when the review of UK records is complete.
There remains, of course the possibility that
an individual we have captured and released has subsequently been
detained by another country and then transferred to Guantanamo
Bay. We are not aware of any such occurrence and consider it to
be unlikely. However, it is nor the responsibility of the UK Foreign
Office or Ministry of Defence to monitor this information nor
do I believe it would be practical for us to do so.
David Miliband
26 June 2008
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