Republican News · Thursday 6 June 2002

Europe of the liberties?

The European Union is increasingly moving away from the Europe of the Peoples and towards the Big Brother scenario imagined by George Orwell in his book 1984.

From now on we can expect to be treated as guilty until proved innocent as our phone calls, e-mails and internet movements will be stored and the police forces of EU states and of the US will be able to access information previously considered private.

Those involved in solidarity with the Kurds or with Basque or Turkish political prisoners can also consider themselves suspicious, as the EU list of so-called "terrorist organisations" is expanding to encompass more organisations and individuals.

In the last month, the European Union has passed a new piece of legislation giving sweeping powers to monitor telephone, internet and e-mail traffic and added more names of individuals and organisations to the list of so-called terrorist organisations.

On 30 May, and despise opposition from civil liberties groups worldwide, the European Parliament succumbed to the pressure from individual governments - led by Britain and Spain - to place telecommunications under surveillance. The PSE/socialist group and the PPE/conservative group - who together have a large majority in the European Parliament - joined forces to pass the legislation, while the rapporteur, the ELDR (European Liberal Democrats and Reform Party), Green/EFA (European Free Aliance) group and the GUE (United Left) voted against.

The debate over protecting privacy or giving states the right to spy on everyone in this way ended when the Parliament said internet and telecom companies could be obliged to retain personal information on their users for a limited period, for reasons of national security. The governments maintain that this move was necessary in the aftermath of the events of 11 September 2001, but this measure is not needed in serious criminal investigations, as these powers already exist under a 1997 Directive.

The police services will still need a warrant to intercept the content of electronic communications, but in practical terms, the new legislation will allow them to access records of any individual's personal communications, including e-mail, phone calls and internet sites visited. So, police in EU member states will know who and when the "suspect" has e-mail or phone, and which internet sites s/he has visited. From mobile phone records, police will be able to map people's movements, as mobiles communicate through the nearest base station in only seconds.

Tony Bunyan, editor of the European Union watchdog Statewatch, described the impact of the legislation as "the last casualty in the war against terrorism so far as civil liberties are concerned". Bunyan said the problem with wanting to monitor a few individuals is that everyone's data will be kept, infringing the right to privacy of all European Union citizens.

British civil rights organisation Liberty criticised how the new legislation will allow police and authorities to go through the details of the communications of millions of innocent people just because there is a possibility they might come across something suspicious.

Banned groups

On 2 May, the Council of the European Union (the 15 EU governments) adopted by "written procedure" (the text is simply circulated and agreed unless there is any objection) two updated lists of individuals and organisations whose funds and assets are to be frozen under anti-terrorist measures.

The lists, which add 13 new organisations, includes, for the first time, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and the Basque Askatasuna, a group that defends the rights of Basque political prisoners. Most of the other new additions mirror the proscription list drawn up by former British Home Secretary Jack Straw, which came into force there in September 2001.

Statewatch said the inclusion of the PKK was particularly puzzling because it unilaterally declared a ceasefire in 1999, ending its military struggle and withdrawing its armed forces from Turkey in order to enable a political solution of the Kurdish question.

There is also the problem that the PKK no longer exists. It was replaced in April by the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (Kadek), which is not on the EU's lists of terrorist groups. The inclusion of the PKK follows persistent demands from Turkey that they should be on the list. The European Union and Britain had never considered banning the PKK while it was an active armed organisation.

Kadek spokesperson Osman Ocalan said the banning of PKK "will assist Turkey to impose even more intensive oppression", and may lead to a new war if Turkey's military forces "start to oppress all democratic forces involved with the Kurds".

The new EU legislation limits the freedom of expression of all European citizens. They will fall foul of the terms implied by the list if they support democratic and non-violent activities by the Kurds, because they will be construed as supporting 'terror'.

There is a fear that the European Court's longstanding pending human rights judgements against Turkey may now be quashed or blocked because in the future every crime against human rights can be justified as part of the war on terrorism.

Kurdish NGOs fear that their work in Europe and existing and possible partnerships with other European groups will suffer as the EU list of terrorist organisations will constitute binding guidelines for NGOs and human rights, development and environmental organisations, and will be formally served upon them. The same applies to banks, foundations, universities, colleges and schools.

other Turkish group that has been included on the EU's terrorist list is the left-wing DHKP-C (Revolutionary People's Liberation Army/Front/Party), one of the main players in the hunger strike in Turkish prisons against the F-type regime that started in October 2000. The death fast has so far claimed 50 lives and a further 30 were slaughtered in December 2000, when security forces attacked prisoners in an effort to break the strike and enforce transfers to the new prisons.

Statewatch finds that the inclusion of Basque group Askatasuna on the list of groups deemed "organisations [that] are part of the terrorist group ETA" is significant, if not unexpected. It said the Aznar government in Spain "is attempting to make organisations linked with the Basque nationalist left illegal, including organisations that concentrate on highlighting human rights abuses by Spanish security forces", and those political organisations like Batasuna or youth organisation, Segi, that pursue Basque independence.

Askatasuna is the name taken by the Gestoras pro Amnistia and Gureak prisoner support groups after Gestoras was banned and was controversially included in the list of terrorist groups drawn up on 27 December 2001. When its lawyer requested access to the documents and information that led to its proscription, he was given partial access to documents, none of which specifically dealt with the information leading to the group's inclusion on the terror list.

For more information, check http://www.statewatch.org

Lift

In practical terms, the new legislation will allow poice to access records of any individual's personal communications, including e-mail, phone calls and internet sites visited