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HR 126: Letter to the Chairman from Andrew Tyrie MP

 

 

Rendition: Diego Garcia

 

The work of your Committee has been very valuable in investigating extraordinary rendition, bringing us closer to what really happened.

 

On 1 October 2008 I wrote to your Committee about Diego Garcia, and attached a note on the relevant legal regime. My letter set out that I would be grateful if you would consider holding a short inquiry into the involvement of Diego Garcia in the US rendition programme.

 

A number of us in the Group would be very grateful to know what steps your Committee is considering, in order to "examine further the extent of UK supervision of US activities on Diego Garcia, including all flights and ships serviced from Diego Garcia".[1]

 

As you know, almost a year on from the Foreign Secretary's confirmation that two rendition flights used Diego Garcia, both Governments have been reticent in response to requests for further information on these flights, and British involvement in the rendition programme more generally. I have subsequently discovered that the US Administration provided inaccurate assurances on this issue to the UK Government on at least eight separate occasions.[2] This information was disclosed as a result of Freedom of Information Act requests and Written Answers.

 

Your Committee has clarified that US assurances on torture cannot be relied upon. With this in mind, we need more information relating to the fate of the two individuals rendered through Diego Garcia. US assurances that neither of the detainees were tortured or held in secret detention are insufficient. It is important to establish, among other things, their identity; the countries in which they were held and interrogated; and the interrogation methods used on them.

 

It is important to examine whether the two rendition flights breached agreements in place for the use of Diego Garcia between the UK and the US; whether the law was broken in relation to the two rendition flights; and whether any amendments are needed to ensure Diego Garcia cannot be used for rendition flights in the future. Further credible allegations surrounding the use of Diego Garcia, and set out in previous correspondence, also require investigation.

 

I am placing this letter in the public domain.

 

 

29 January 2009

 


[1] Foreign Affairs Committee, Seventh Report 2007-08: Overseas Territories, 6 July 2008, paragraph 70.

[2] My letter of 1 October 2008 had stated that inaccurate assurances were provided on at least seven occasions. Recent Written Answers have established that the earlier information provided to me was itself inaccurate.