- Sweeping measures to deal with terrorist attacks and
other emergencies are to be announced this week, giving the Government
power to over-ride civil liberties in times of crisis, and evacuate threatened
areas, restrict people's movements and confiscate property.
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- The Civil Contingencies Bill, which covers every kind
of disaster from terrorism to the weather, will be the biggest shake-up
of emergency laws since the early part of the last century, replacing legislation
which saw the UK through a world war and the IRA bombing campaign.
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- Some of the proposals in the draft version of the Bill,
drawn up in the summer, have alarmed civil rights activists, notably a
clause that gives the Government the power to suspend parts or all of the
Human Rights Act without a vote by MPs.
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- Once an emergency has been proclaimed by the Queen, the
Government can order the destruction of property, order people to evacuate
an area or ban them from travelling, and "prohibit assemblies of specified
kinds" and "other specified activities".
-
- If these rules had been in force during the Iraq war,
critics say, they could have been used to to ban street demonstrations,
making anyone who travelled to protest guilty of a criminal offence. After
a major terrorist attack, forums made up of local councils, the emergency
services and utility companies would be put in charge of trying to get
shattered communities back together.
-
- Other measures will be welcomed as a timely reaction
to last week's carnage in Istanbul, where 57 people were killed and hundreds
injured by suicide bombers.
-
- Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday
gave the official death toll from Thursday's attacks on two British targets
as 30, 10 of whom died in the British consulate. He also confirmed that
the four suicide bombers responsible for all four attacks were Turkish
citizens, and revealed that 18 people have been arrested in connection
with the bombings. Three groups linked to al-Qa'ida have claimed responsibility.
-
- Although party political wrangling in Britain is often
suspended after a tragedy on this scale, the pressure on Tony Blair showed
no sign of letting up yesterday. Patrick Mercer, Conservative spokesman
on homeland security, accused the Government of failing to take the terrorist
threat seriously.
-
- "Why wasn't our consulate in Istanbul shifted? It
was attacked earlier on in the year, the same time as the American consulate
was attacked. The Americans moved theirs to a less vulnerable position,
we didn't," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
-
- He added: "I do wonder slightly why if, for instance,
you go to London, the only building that seems to be taking the suicide
bombing threat particularly seriously is the US embassy."
-
- David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, defended government
actions saying: "While we must be vigilant, and of course defend our
own staff and those using the consulates and embassies, we also have to
exercise a degree of common sense. It is very good intelligence that actually
saves you in the end, not massive concrete blocks around every piece of
British territory abroad."
-
- The US already has the Patriot Act, rushed through Congress
after the 11 September attacks, which has been criticised for its effect
on civil liberties. Such fears will have been heightened yesterday by General
Tommy Franks, who commanded the coalition troops in Iraq and who has become
the first high-ranking US official to talk openly about scrapping the Constitution
in the wake of a major terrorist attack.
-
- "The worst thing that could happen is if terrorists
acquire and then use a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon that inflicts
heavy casualties," he warned.
-
- The effect of an attack on that scale could be to provoke
Americans to "question our own Constitution and to begin to militarise
our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing
event - which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution,"
he said.
-
- Meanwhile the Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, has
announced that he has abandoned any plans to host European summits next
year, because it would be a security "nightmare". He said, in
Brussels: "It's too costly, too disruptive and quite dangerous."
-
- The Civil Contingencies Bill, which is being handled
by the Cabinet Office minister Douglas Alexander, will be announced in
Wednesday's Queen's Speech. More details will be made public on Friday,
when a committee off MPs and peers publish their conclusions after four
months examining the proposals.
-
- Civil liberties groups have been alarmed by the Cabinet
Office's sweeping definition of an "emergency" and the powers
it confers. It is defined as any event that represents a serious threat
to the welfare of the population, the environment, political or economic
stability or security of any part of the UK. This includes wars, floods,
a breakdown of power supplies, outbreaks of animal diseases or any situation
that "causes or may cause disruption of the activities of Her Majesty's
Government".
-
- Gareth Crossman of Liberty said: "We are not saying
that the Government shouldn't have powers to deal with civil emergencies,
or that they shouldn't be brought up to date, but we are concerned that
they have been extremely broadly drawn."
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- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=466424
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