Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Dec 6 2005 (IPS) — U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will face tough questions as she visits Europe this week over allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is engaged in unlawful practices against terror suspects in Europe.

Rice arrived in Berlin Tuesday (Dec. 6) to meet new German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She will travel to Romania and Ukraine, and will conclude her tour by attending a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) meeting in Brussels Thursday (Dec. 8).

The trip was aimed at improving relations between the U.S. and Europe, but will now be overshadowed by what has become a fully-fledged transatlantic row over the alleged existence of secret CIA prisons in eastern Europe..

The controversy has been simmering since allegations were made that terror suspects had been flown via European airports to face torture in countries like Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Uzbekistan and Jordan.

There were other media reports that two eastern European countries – Poland and Romania – had provided interrogation centres for the CIA.

The German government Saturday (Dec. 3) confirmed the existence of a list of more than 400 CIA flights using German airports. The suspicion is that some of these transported suspected terrorists to secret prisons for interrogation.

The European Union (EU) wrote to Rice last month expressing its misgivings that CIA planes carrying detainees had stopped in EU countries.

Last week, the British presidency of the EU formally requested for “clarification” of reports about the secret detention centres, and the transport or ‘rendition’ of detainees across Europe in possible violation of international law.

Speaking Monday before she left the U.S., Rice admitted that terror suspects were flown abroad for interrogation, but denied they were tortured.

She said suspects were transported to various centres under a process known as rendition, and insisted that this was “a lawful weapon.”

Rice refused to address claims that the CIA had set up secret prisons abroad where suspects are interrogated without reference to international law.

Although the victims of rendition usually end up in countries known to use torture in their interrogations, Rice added that the U.S. government seeks assurances on treatment from receiving nations.

Human rights groups have accused Rice of seeking to “mischaracterise” the true nature of rendition – transferring detainees from country to country without legal process.

As Rice arrived in Berlin Tuesday, Amnesty International reported that “six planes used by the CIA for renditions have made some 800 flights in or out of European airspace including 50 landings at Shannon airport in the Republic of Ireland.”

Amnesty International says it has obtained flight records for six CIA-chartered planes from September 2001 to September this year.

“According to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, over this period these planes landed 50 times in Shannon and took off 35 times, suggesting that some flights were kept secret,” the group said in a statement.

Although Shannon airport is used as a refuelling stop for the U.S. military, Amnesty says none of the planes were military transport planes.

“The latest information confirms other persistent and reliable reports in the media and by non-governmental organisations that CIA-chartered flights are used for renditions. It also contradicts assurances given last week by the U.S. secretary of state Condalezza Rice to the Irish foreign minister Dermot Ahern, that Ireland’s Shannon airport had not been used for ‘untoward’ purposes or as a transit point for terror suspects,” the group said in its statement.

The organisation also rejected assertions by Rice that rendition was permissible under international law.

“Flying detainees to countries where they may face torture or other ill-treatment is a direct and outright breach on international law with or without so called ‘diplomatic assurances’. These assurances are meaningless. Countries known for systematic torture regularly deny the existence of such practices,” said Claudio Cordone, Amnesty’s senior director of regional programmes.

Amnesty International is now urging European countries to investigate “promptly and thoroughly” the allegations that their territory has been used to assist CIA-chartered flights secretly transporting detainees to countries where they may face ‘disappearance’, torture or other ill-treatment.

Pending the results of such an investigation, all states must ensure that their territory and facilities are not used to assist rendition flights, the group says.