Europe urged to halt ties to U.S. renditions

GENEVA, June 27 (Reuters) Leading human rights groups today called on European states to halt all involvement in US illegal transfers or secret detentions of terrorist suspects and fully investigate alleged violations.

It was ''unacceptable and unlawful'' for European states to participate in what often amounted to international crimes.

In a joint statement, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists and the Association for the Prevention of Torture laid down measures they said were necessary to uphold the rule of law in Europe.

Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty earlier this month accused the United States and its Central Intelligence Agency of moving al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects to countries by means of secret transfer flights known as ''renditions''.

European states had to ensure that counter-terrorism measures did not lead to further human rights violations on their territory and that no one was handed over to face violations of their rights elsewhere, the groups said.

''Many of these cases amount to enforced disappearance, a crime under international law,'' they said.

The rights' groups said that people had been detained and transferred abroad without due legal process to places where they had been subjected to torture or inhuman treatment.

Marty, a Swiss lawmaker, named Poland and Romania as suspected locations for secret CIA prisons in Europe, but conceded that he could not prove his allegations. Both states deny any involvement.

Washington acknowledges the secret transfer of some suspects between countries. It denies any wrongdoing and insists it acted with the full knowledge of the governments concerned.

The rights groups laid down 12 steps that European governments should follow, including: -- European states should issue ''clear instructions'' to their intelligence services, law enforcement and transport agencies not to provide any help in renditions or illegal detentions.

-- Public inquiries should be set up with full investigative powers to examine government cooperation with foreign intelligence that had led to violations, including torture. An inquiry should have ''powers to search military bases''.

-- When there are grounds for believing that a non-scheduled flight landing in a European state is being used to transport detainees, it should be inspected by law enforcement agents.

REUTERS SHB 1850