EU: EU foreign ministers called for the closure of the US detention centre at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba yesterday following the suicide of three inmates at the weekend. Ministers also agreed that the future of the camp would be discussed in detail at the upcoming EU/US summit in Vienna next week.
Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik said the camp was an anomaly for a state such as the US, which normally respected the rule of law and human rights, and should be closed as soon as possible.
External Relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner also said the plant should be closed, while Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, criticised a statement by a US official on Sunday that the suicides were a "PR move".
"It's hard to understand why when three people kill themselves, that is an attack on America. Something has to change in the American mentality," said Mr Asselborn.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said he had been the first EU foreign minister to call publicly for the closure of Guantánamo. "I asked the British to raise the issue with the US when they held the EU presidency people are entitled to a fair trial," he said.
Speaking ahead of a Dáil debate on the CIA's rendition of prisoners through European airports, Mr Ahern said the two issues were not linked. He said the Government had no intention of setting up an inspection regime to check if renditions were taking place.
"It is not a matter of protecting our political or economic interests - we have cast iron guarantees from the Americans. We see no point in setting up something that would probably be impossible to police anyway given the large number of flights in and out of the country."
Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers made the formal decision to deploy almost 2,000 troops to support the UN-sponsored election in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Germany and France will each contribute about 800 soldiers, with the remainder coming from up to 16 other states, including 10 from Ireland.
About 17,000 UN peacekeepers are already based in the Congo, attempting to maintain order after a bitter civil war broke out in 1998. Aid workers say more than 1,000 people continue to die every day, mostly from hunger and disease, adding to the four million killed during the previous conflict.