LONDON, Nov 11: British government plans to hold terrorist suspects without trial under an emergency power used and discredited in Northern Ireland 30 years ago, sparked a raft of criticism on Sunday.
Home Secretary David Blunkett is to ask the British parliament on Monday for a derogation, or opt-out, from European human rights legislation which enshrines the right to liberty and prohibits detention without trial.
According to article 15 of the Convention on Human Rights, governments are allowed to derogate in times of war or other “public emergency.”
The proposed measure is in response to a perceived threat from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network for Britain’s involvement in military action against Afghanistan, where bin Laden is based.
“I am determined to protect this country from anyone who is prepared to abuse our hospitality and welcome in order to plan or promote terrorism here or abroad,” Blunkett said.
“Equally, I intend to protect human rights and ensure the right to a properly-constituted legal hearing and appeal for those suspected of engaging in terrorism.”
But John Wadham, director of the civil rights group Liberty, said it was “a fundamental violation of the rule of law, our rights and traditional British values.”
The public emergency order is just one of a series of anti-terror measures the government wants to rush through in response to the September 11 terrorist atrocities in the United States for which bin Laden is chief suspect.
With cross-party support, the government hopes to have the law introduced by the end of this year.
The Home Office insists detention without trial would be under “very limited circumstances,” and Blunkett said individuals would be able to challenge their detention by appealing to a special commission.
Internment without trial has been used before, for example against Northern Ireland terrorist suspects, and German citizens during World War II.
Its use in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s was highly controversial.
Hundreds of Catholic republicans were rounded up and detained on suspicion of being involved in terrorism, a draconian, widely-abused measure which only intensified hatred for the British army and increased support for the Irish Republican Army.
The Home Office stressed the measure would apply to foreigners suspected of involvement in terrorism who posed a threat to British national security, and who could not be returned to their homeland.
It would include asylum seekers who cannot be repatriated because of a fear that their lives would be in danger.
Main opposition Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said he would support the measure.
He went further, suggesting that the government should seek further opt-outs so that it could routinely deport people to, for example, states in the United States which retain the death penalty.
But Charles Kennedy, of the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats, said he would fight any moves to scrap individuals’ right to challenge detention.
He said that would be “a serious erosion of civil liberties and one with which we will not put up.”
Mark Fisher, a member of parliament for the ruling Labour Party, was also concerned, saying the public would need “a great deal of convincing” that the moves were necessary.—AFP