Amnesty International has stated that countries linked to CIA tortures sites, including Poland, must act to ensure that justice is served, following the December release of a US Senate report on the subject.
“The time for denials and cover-ups is over,'' Amnesty stated in its own report on Tuesday.
''Governments can no longer rely on unsubstantiated ‘national security’ grounds and claims of state secrecy to hide the truth about their roles in the torture and disappearance of people.
''It’s time for justice for all those who have suffered the gruesome practices - including waterboarding, sexual assault, and mock executions - that characterized these illegal counter-terrorism operations.”
Amnesty has likewise said that European governments ''must act urgently to bring those responsible to justice.''
Following the December release of the Senate report, former Prime Minister Leszek Miller and former President Aleksander Kwasniewski admitted that ''the Americans asked [Poland] in 2001 for a quiet location to question people who wanted to cooperate.''
Poland launched its own investigation into the matte in 2008. However, Amnesty stresses that the process ''has been repeatedly delayed,'' and that ''one Polish official told Amnesty International that the US government has ignored a number of requests for information required for the investigation. (nh)
Ewa Malcher
