LONDON (AFP) — Ireland's top rights body Tuesday accused the government of failing to do enough to ensure that flights used for CIA "extraordinary renditions" are not passing through Irish airports.
The Irish Human Rights Commission renewed a call for an effective inspection and monitoring regime to be put in place.
Under the rendition programme, terror suspects are transported to secret prisons in countries with less stringent interrogation rules.
However, Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern denied that the government was lagging in its duty to ensure that prisoners transferred by US authorities through Ireland would not be tortured or mistreated in other countries.
An IHRC review of Ireland's human rights obligations on the practice of "extraordinary rendition" concluded that diplomatic assurances received from Washington "are not sufficient".
"An effective inspection regime will ensure that no prisoners are transited through the State en route to a situation of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," the Commission said.
"'Extraordinary rendition' is an illegal practice which results in torture, and to meet its human rights obligations, the Irish Government must put in place an effective inspection regime to ensure that no foreign aircraft suspected of involvement in the practice land or refuel in Ireland," said Des Hogan, director of enquiry and legal services of the IHRC.
Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and Dermot Ahern have repeatedly said they have personally received assurances from US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that rendition flights have not passed through Irish territory.
In response to the Commission review, Dermot Ahern said the US assurances had been "uniquely clear and categoric".
Ahern said the IHRC "would also appear to give more credence to a self-appointed 'activist group' than to the categoric and unqualified assurances of the democratically elected government of the US."
The Irish government was confident that under international law it is fully entitled to rely on the "categoric and absolute assurances" secured from the US government at the highest level that they have not engaged in extraordinary rendition through Ireland.
He said no other European country has an inspection regime as proposed in the IHRC report.
"The Commission are asking Ireland to do something that no other state is doing," Ahern said.
"It is very important to recall that at no stage has any evidence ever emerged, or even a specific allegation made, that any person has ever been subject to extraordinary rendition through Ireland," Ahern said.
Shannon in southwest Ireland is the first airport across the North Atlantic from the United States and serves as an important re-fuelling stop for US military planes.
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