East European countries urged to probe roles in CIA ‘torture’

EUROPE’S human rights chief urged Lithuania, Poland and Romania yesterday to investigate the roles their governments allegedly played in the CIA’s programme of “secret detention and torture” of terrorism suspects.

“CIA rendition, detention and interrogation practices gave rise to the most serious categories of human rights violations on European soil,” said Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s rights commissioner. “The governments concerned have favoured concealment and cover-up,” he told Associated Press.

Hammarberg alleges that officials in the three countries lied to parliament, made false statements to international organisations and used judicial channels — including the invocation of state secrecy — to keep the most damaging revelations out of the public domain.