MEP says Bosnia used for secret CIA flights
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - May 18, 2006, Thursday

Text of report in English by Croatian news agency HINA

Sarajevo, 18 May: The European Parliament's rapporteur on the transport and illegal detention of prisoners in European territory by the CIA, Giovanni Claudio Fava, has said that there is information about several thousand secret flights, some of which started in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

In a statement carried by Sarajevo's Dnevni avaz daily on Thursday [18 May], Fava said that there was reliable information backing up his statement.

We know that there were secret flights in the European air space and from European airports. We have also established that there were flights over Bosnia-Hercegovina as well, Fava said.

He went on to say that the investigation he was conducting focused on the transfer of members of the so-called Algerian group from Bosnia-Hercegovina to Guantanamo.

Those people were taken from Bosnia-Hercegovina with the help of a company working for the CIA. This was a military flight which carried those people, accused of alleged terrorism, to Guantanamo, Fava said speaking about the case of six naturalized Bosnian citizens originating from Afro-Asian countries who were arrested in Sarajevo on suspicion of preparing attacks on Western embassies in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

The Bosnian police handed them over to US representatives who then transferred them to Guantanamo where they have been since.

Fava said that the European Parliament was still waiting for answers to a questionnaire sent to Bosnian authorities two months ago with the aim of establishing all details regarding the secret flights.

He said that members of the European Parliament's fact-finding team could visit Bosnia-Hercegovina after June to check on-the-ground information about the CIA's secret flights over and from the country.

Source: HINA news agency, Zagreb, in English 0939 gmt 18 May 06

Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation
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