By IRNA
London : The British government has come under stinging criticism over its delayed admission that UK territories have been used by the US in the rendition of terrorist suspects.
The opposition Conservative’s shadow foreign secretary William Hague warned that the admission, made by Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday, after more than two years of denials, could damage the perception of UK-US relations.
“The delay in releasing the information and the evident absence of a request in these cases are bound to undermine public trust to some extent in the arrangements that we have with the United States,” Hague said.
“Allegations that rendition has led to the torture of terrorist suspects has been used to undermine the moral standing of the US and its allies,” he also warned.
In a parliamentary statement, Miliband embarrassingly admitted that two cases of Diego Gracia being used to send prisoners to Guantanamo Bay in 2002 had been overlooked by the US, despite “earlier explicit assurances” to the contrary.
“Would not the position of the United States and all its allies be strengthened if it, the United States, were to adopt a definition of torture that corresponds more closely to international norms,” Hague suggested.
He also said it would help, if Washington also “adopted a higher threshold for rendition to third countries than satisfying itself that it ‘believes’ that the transferred suspect will not be tortured.” Labour chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mike Gapes more strongly said the US government had “clearly misled or lied” to the British government and had resulted in ministers giving “inadvertently misleading” evidence.
The Liberal Democrat’s shadow foreign secretary, Edward Davey, said it was time for an independent inquiry in any UK involvement in renditions.
He ridiculed a previous dismissal by former Prime Minister Tony Blair as “absurd.”
“Rendition is state-sponsored abduction and water-boarding is torture. We must not only be assured that Britain has not been used to facilitate such practices, but we must tell our friends in the United States that we deplore such practices,” Davey said.
He called on the government to condemn the practice of rendition in all cases and warned that until the US gives it up and closes Guantanamo, Britain must make it clear, it is “not only infringing international law, but potentially undermining the fight against international terrorism.”
Chairman of the all-party committee on rendition, Andrew Tyrie also warned that the admission would leave the British public “unwilling to trust other assurances we have received from the US.”