From the Rapid Response Network
http://www.rapidresponsenetwork.org/The American media has, for the most part, failed to cover another important story.
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-04/26/article08.shtmlEuropean MPs Demand End to Guantanamo Torture
Lawmakers from 46 European countries on Tuesday, April 26, asked the Bush administration “to cease torturing and mistreating detainees” at its notorious Guantanamo detention.
“The US government has betrayed its own highest principles in the zeal with which it has attempted to purse the 'war on terror',” said a resolution adopted almost unanimously by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) at a session in Strasbourg.
The resolution stressed that “many if not all detainees” have been subjected to inhuman treatment mounting in some cases to “torture”.
It maintained that this was “a direct result of official policy, authorized at the very highest levels of government”.
The resolution challenged the US to either try them fairly or release them, in line with international law.
British parliamentarian Kevin McNamara told the session that Washington’s conduct in Guantanamo has been “an insult to the values of all civilized countries”.
Backing a report by McNamara, PACE also called on Council of Europe member states to refuse to extradite suspects liable to be held at Guantanamo or provide incriminating evidence unless it was for legal proceedings before “regularly constituted courts”.
Links to the PACE resolution and McNamara report:
Resolution:
http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/AdoptedText/ta05/ERES1433.htmReport:
http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc05/EDOC10497.htm*ACTIONS*
1) Write to your local media and to the national media. This is a MAJOR story. Why are they not covering this?? A Google search returned a pathetic 70 hits, some of which were foreign media and most showed newspapers that buried the same AP article in their papers.
Google search:
http://digbig.com/4dgkx2) Contact your legislators. They need to know that we're paying attention and that their complacency about the human rights abuses being perpetrated by the Bush administration are 1000% unacceptable!