European lawmakers want EU to pressure Washington on Guantanamo

[Say_What]

<clips>

Members of the European Parliament Tuesday called on the European Union to put pressure on the United States to ensure fair treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, where al-Qaeda suspects are being held.

A cross-section of parties urged the EU to suspend legal cooperation agreements with Washington if necessary, if they did not receive satisfaction over the human rights of prisoners in the detention centre at a US base in Guantanamo, Cuba, where hundreds of Afghan war prisoners are held.

British Liberal Democrat deputy Sarah Ludford suggested the EU should make its support for a US draft resolution on Iraq in the United Nations depend on treatment of the prisoners.

"I'm personally hearing a deafening silence from the EU as an entity," Ludford told a news conference: "Where is the united diplomatic protest by the EU to President Bush?... I think it is our duty to tell President Bush andDefense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld ... that the US is shooting itself in the foot with human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay."


http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/030930183520.lz18yddu