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Topic: Bruises don't warrant a military inquiry (Read 4241 times)
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Great report Mike and i thank you for getting it up here for all to see.. not that you and i don' t already know what the Cdns are all about.. and may i say a big thank you to Christie for getting this out there for all Cdns to read... ranrad
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Apparently, it gets worse. Define extra judicial execution? May the Lord help us if one of the prisoners we turned over was, without trail, subject to extra judicial execution. Really, I have never heard that term before, what does that mean? They torture them to death real slow? And what does that say about us, as a nation, if it is true, that the government was told exactly what was going to happen to the prisoners but, as Harper did yesterday, shrugged it off. Notice that they first said the report did not even exists (a lie) then, after failing to obstruct the access to information act at every turn, eventually did what the law demanded.
What Ottawa doesn't want you to know
Government was told detainees faced 'extra judicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial'
By PAUL KORING
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 – Page A1
The Harper government knew from its own officials that prisoners held by Afghan security forces faced the possibility of torture, abuse and extrajudicial killing, The Globe and Mail has learned.
But the government has eradicated every single reference to torture and abuse in prison from a heavily blacked-out version of a report prepared by Canadian diplomats in Kabul and released under an access-to-information request.
Initially, Ottawa denied the existence of the report, responding in writing that "no such report on human-rights performance in other countries exists." After complaints to the Access to Information Commissioner, it released a heavily edited version this week.
Among the sentences blacked out by the Foreign Affairs Department in the report's summary is "Extra judicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common," according to full passages of the report obtained independently by The Globe.
The Foreign Affairs report, titled Afghanistan-2006; Good Governance, Democratic Development and Human Rights, was marked "CEO" for Canadian Eyes Only. It seems to remove any last vestige of doubt that the senior officials and ministers knew that torture and abuse were rife in Afghan jails.
It leaves untouched paragraphs such as those beginning "one positive development" or "there are some bright spots."
But heavy dark blocks obliterate sentences such as "the overall human rights situation in Afghanistan deteriorated in 2006."
It's not clear why such internationally agreed and obvious observations are blacked out of the Canadian report. No national-security issues seem involved, nor are there personal privacy issues, reasons often cited for excising information.
A comparison of the full text -- parts of which were obtained by The Globe -- with the edited version shows a pattern of excising negative findings with positive ones left in.
There was no explanation for blacking out observations such as "military, intelligence and police forces have been accused of involvement in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping extortion, torture and extrajudicial killing."
Although the findings aren't surprising - they echo other, and widely publicized, reports by Louise Arbour, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, the U.S. State Department, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, and various international human-rights groups - the report by Canada's own diplomats seems to undermine the government's claims that it was unaware of the fate likely faced by detainees handed over by Canadian troops to Afghan security forces.
The report raises a red flag for any government bound by the Geneva Conventions and responsible for safeguarding transferred detainees from torture and abuse.
It makes repeated dark references to the reputation and performance of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, or intelligence police. Most prisoners captured by Canadian troops are now turned over to the widely feared NDS, which is considered tougher but perhaps less corrupt that the Afghan National Police. "Allegations of torture and arbitrary detention by NDS officials have also been reported," the full text of the report says.
Another portion that is blacked out reads "widespread allegations of corruption and human-rights violations exist with respect to the Afghanistan National Police (ANP) and Ministry of Interior (MOI)."
Little of this is new, none of it is surprising. In March, when the U.S. State Department issued its annual report, it made clear that Afghan prisons, where Canada consigns detainees captured by its troops, were rife with torture, abuse and corruption. The report echoed equally grim assessments issued earlier by the United Nations and Afghanistan's own independent Human Rights Commission.
"Security and factional forces committed extrajudicial killings and torture," the U.S. report said. The most recent report by Ms. Arbour found: "The NSD, responsible for both civil and military intelligence, operates in relative secrecy without adequate judicial oversight and there have been reports of prolonged detention without trial, extortion, torture, and systematic due process violations."
The Globe first asked Foreign Affairs on March 7 if Canadian diplomats compiled and wrote similar reports on Afghan human-rights conditions. "No" was the answer.
On March 22, in response to an Access to Information Act request, Jeff Esau, a journalist and researcher working for The Globe, received the following response to his request for the report:
"Please be advised that Canada does not produce an annual human rights report analogous to the reports produced by, for example, the United States or the United Kingdom. Therefore no such report on human rights performance in other countries exists," wrote Jocelyne Sabourin, Director of the Access to Information division at Foreign Affairs.
An earlier access request, filed Jan. 29 by Amir Attaran, a University of Ottawa law professor, asked specifically for the human-rights report on Afghanistan and noted that Foreign Affairs had, in the past, made such reports available to non-governmental organizations.
It also noted that the report on Syria had been referenced in the report on the Maher Arar case.
It was only after the 30-day deadline for a response had long passed and Mr. Attaran complained to Information Commissioner Dan Dupuis, that the edited version was delivered this week, eradicating all reporting of torture and abuse beneath the censor's black pen.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
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Mike Blais
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How convenient.
No detainee paper trail
Spokeswoman: Minister only gets verbal updates about prisoners
OTTAWA — A key paper trail that once tracked the handling of Taliban prisoners has been eliminated in the defence minister’s office, raising questions about human-rights accountability.
Unlike his Liberal predecessor, who received written reports every time a detainee was captured, Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor is given only oral briefings.
The practice of written daily briefings, born partly out of the Somalia prisoner-abuse scandal in the early 1990s, has been discontinued, a spokeswoman for the minister confirmed.
"The minister is briefed verbally on a daily basis regarding operations," Isabelle Bouchard said in an e-mail.
Critics say the change in procedure suggests the defence minister has not been properly monitoring the human rights of Taliban prisoners captured by Canadian soldiers and turned over to the Afghanistan government.
"Under international law, we’re responsible for what takes place," said NDP Leader Jack Layton.
"The minister, on behalf of Canadians, is responsible for monitoring detainees. This is another example of a failure of leadership."
With the war in Afghanistan, there is an avalanche of information waiting for the defence minister every morning — and oral briefings raise the possibility that key points and details can get lost.
Last winter, O’Connor was forced to apologize to the Commons for misinforming members of Parliament about the role of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the monitoring of detainees.
The absence of a paper trail could provide a degree of deniability should a major human-rights abuse be carried out by Canadian troops or Afghans, who take charge of captured insurgents.
The previous Liberal defence minister, Bill Graham, received detailed, written notification of prisoner captures — materials that could then be obtained under the Access to Information Act. But recent Access to Information Act requests made by The Canadian Press for the same reports prepared for the new minister were returned, with the response: "No records could be located."
Every time an insurgent is captured, staff with Task Force Afghanistan send a detailed advisory to the Defence Department, reports that include the prisoner’s name and medical condition. The advisory is also sent to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Those documents had been used as a basis for a written brief to the minister, but the trail now stops with bureaucrats.
Amir Attaran, the University of Ottawa law professor who first raised questions of prisoner detention, said Monday it’s clear the Canadian government is content to keep itself in the dark.
In a report from Kandahar on Monday, the Globe and Mail cited interviews with 30 detainees who said they were beaten, whipped, starved, frozen, choked and given electric shocks during interrogation.
None of the alleged abuse was inflicted by Canadians, and most enemy captives — even those who clearly sympathized with the Taliban — praised the Canadian soldiers for their politeness, their gentle handling of captives and their comfortable detention facility.
Oral briefings for ministers are not new in the defence portfolio. In 2002, former defence minister Art Eggleton was given an oral briefing when Canadian commandos captured Taliban fighters, who were then handed over to U.S. forces.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Very interesting reports Mike, and i must say of course i agree that this is not the Cdn way, nor should it be,i think... but a real web has been spun for years now over this very subject. I have just come across, accidentilly, in the bood "Shadow Wars" , by David Pugliese, that the Americans from the get go would not adhere to the rules and laws of the Geneva Conventions, when dealing with terrorists or suspected terrorists.. perhaps this attitude has rubbed off, or been forced on to other countries.. ie , how does one deal with several different standards....it makes it tough on our people if they CANNOT adhere strictly with our own legal guidelines... so it does appear, to me any way ,that Mr Harper ha ssome real soul searching to do, and then get a solid policy out there... and i cannot believe that Cdn people would go along with working OUTSIDE the rules of the Geneva Conventions... they are for our benefit too, and are the decent rules for treating POWs etc.. someone in authority , neeeds to get a grip on this , and soon...ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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How bout this from ole Stockwell.
Lets contract out national security and put KBR in charge of the border....
Hey Dalton, this ought to interest you as I believe you mentioned the word Haliburton....
Canada could utilize private security partnerships in Afghanistan
Kevin Dougherty
CanWest News Service
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
QUEBEC - Canada is considering greater use of public-private partnerships to help bolster security both in Afghanistan and here at home, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day told a counterterrorism conference Tuesday.
Already Canadian troops in Afghanistan are housed at the Kandahar Airfield base run by Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney used to run.
Halliburton has been awarded close to $10 billion in contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq.
Asked what partnerships the Conservative government is considering in Canada, Day said the controversial formula, granting turn-key contracts to private-sector companies, could be used for Canada's border security.
"That's going to require massive infrastructure," Day told reporters. "To get the best system of delivery at the best price and there's a possibility for the private sector there."
In a wide-ranging speech to counterterrorism experts from Canada and the United States, Day recalled that western powers equipped Islamic fundamentalists in the 1980s with modern weapons to drive the Soviets from Afghanistan.
He said the Taliban, one of those Islamic groups armed by the West, "wanted a better country" and were "extremely zealous" in cracking down on corruption.
But drawing on the allegory of George Orwell's novel Animal Farm, Day said once in power the Taliban wielded "unbridled force."
"(They had) no understanding of the rule of law. No understanding of the need for an independent judiciary. Certainly no understanding of the democratic process where people can choose their leadership," Day said.
"These people have no compunction about machine-gunning, mowing down little children. They have no compunction about decapitating or hanging elderly women. They have no compunction about the most vicious types of torture you can imagine."
And he said Canadian and American troops, defending crews drilling wells and building schools, are shot at by the Taliban.
But he admitted there have been difficulties convincing the present Afghan authorities that Taliban prisoners, who are questioned up to 72 hours by Canadian troops before they're turned over to the Afghans, should have humane treatment.
"This is a priority for us," the minister said."In many ways this is a new area for them, the proper care and respect for prisoners, for instance.
"For some people, that's kind of a new concept.
"And they're learning it. It's not moving as quickly as we would have hoped, but progress is being made and we are going to continue to insist that human rights of everybody, even people who are being detained, are respected."
Day rejected Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's suggestion Canada bring its Taliban prisoners home to Canada.
"We want the Taliban to stay in Afghanistan," he said.
kdougherty@thegazette.canwest.com
Montreal Gazette
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
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Mike Blais
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Personal Account: A story of torture
He told me, 'Don't bleed on the carpet'
GRAEME SMITH
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
April 24, 2007 at 2:12 AM EST
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Crouched against a crumbling stone wall, Abdul Wali is a small man with curly dark hair, sweaty and matted under a cap that sits askew on the back of his head.
He plays nervously with a broken wristwatch, kneading the metal bracelet through his fingers like a string of prayer beads. He doesn't want to tell his story, he said. What good would it do? His situation is pretty much the same as everybody else's here in the national-security wing of Sarpoza prison. He stands accused of involvement with the Taliban insurgency, and denies it. No judgment has been passed, so he's not sure how long he will languish in these dark cells.
Yes, he answers in a quiet voice, he was tortured. He opens his shirt and shows scars on his chest. He refuses to show his naked back, where a human-rights investigator said he saw worse scarring on the young man's flesh.
“I'm hopeless,” he said. “I've told my story many times to the interrogators, but they don't listen.”
His ordeal started when he met Canadian troops in a grape field last summer in Nalgham, a cluster of villages about 35 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city, on the north bank of the Arghandab River. At the time, he didn't know the nationality of the soldiers; like most people in southern Afghanistan, he referred to them only as haroji, or foreigners.
But he remembers clearly that the troops had dark-green, eight-wheeled vehicles of the kind used by the Canadians, and he has heard enough stories in prison to understand that he owes his captivity to Canada.
He has no quarrel with the foreign soldiers, he said, although it's easy to understand why the Canadians thought he was a Taliban fighter.
At age 23, he falls into the category that the soldiers usually refer to as “fighting-age males.” He belongs to Omarkhail tribe, a tiny branch of the Pashtun ethnic group, one of many smaller tribes that often feel disenfranchised under the new government. His hometown is located in Helmand province, a long way from the grape field where he encountered the Canadians. That part of the countryside was an unlikely place to be lingering, too, because gun battles had ripped through those fields earlier in the day.
None of that proves he was an insurgent, Mr. Wali said. He was obliged to stay in Nalgham despite the recent fighting because he was guarding a farm that belonged to his brother-in-law. Mr. Wali said he had been living in the district for three years, after his family started a meagre business in a nearby migrant camp.
His father was a livestock trader in Helmand province, he said, but the trade wasn't enough to support all eight sons. Mr. Wali moved with three of his brothers to set up a tailoring shop in a ramshackle camp west of Kandahar city, where thousands of people have sought shelter from war and drought. All the brothers lived with their wives and children in a mud house, 14 people crowding into three rooms. They could afford to eat meat about once a week.
He was relaxing in the shade when the Canadian troops surrounded him, he said. They took off his green pinstripe vest and tore open the lining, finding nothing except his wallet, decorated with Japanese cartoon characters and the words, “Kiki & Coco.” The wallet was later emptied of cash, although Mr. Wali said he's sure the foreign troops didn't steal anything; he blames the local police.
The Canadians tied his hands with plastic cuffs and kept him in the back of their armoured vehicle for two or three hours, he said. The foreigners didn't harm him, only asked questions through a translator and scribbled in a notepad.
Afterwards, the Canadians blindfolded him and gave him to Afghan forces. The beatings started almost immediately, he said, and only paused whenever it seemed that Canadians were nearby.
“The foreign soldiers didn't like to see beating,” he said.
The Afghans took him to a nearby town and uncovered his eyes. He found himself in the Panjwai district headquarters, a high-walled compound where Canadian officers often meet local leaders for cups of green tea.
Mr. Wali was shown less hospitality. Afghan officers took him to a room with bare cement walls and cudgelled him with rifle butts, he said. They also jabbed him in the chest with the muzzles of their Kalashnikovs, he said, which left him with the rash of dark scars on his chest.
At one point, he said, about nine police officers forced his face into the floor. One officer sat on the back of his head, while the others pummelled him. A man in civilian clothes questioned him between beatings, he said.
The local police kept him in that cell for three days, he said, with only two meals of tea and bread. Next he was transferred to Kandahar city, and thrown into the grey block of holding cells beside police headquarters.
Around midday, a fat officer and a thinner one took him up the cement stairs of the headquarters building. They brought him to a room overlooking the busy street, shut the windows, and closed the yellow curtains.
He had a quiet moment to contemplate what was about to happen, he said, as the officers searched for a suitable whip. It seemed they wanted to find a length of chain, but settled on a bundle of electrical cables.
They forced him onto his stomach, he said, and thrashed him on his back and legs.
It was hard to guess how long the beating lasted, he said. He didn't bleed, but later he found himself covered with black bruises. They beat him on three consecutive days, he said, and then started asking for money.
Tales of extortion and bribery are very common among people who have passed through Kandahar jails; in Mr. Wali's case, he said the first person to ask for a bribe was the police interrogator, a tall man with red henna in his neatly trimmed beard. He didn't quote a price, but suggested that a gift would mean freedom.
“I said, ‘What if I don't give you money?'” Mr. Wali said.
“He said, ‘The pen is in my hand. I can send you to the NDS, right now.'”
The National Directorate of Security, the domestic intelligence agency, has a fearsome reputation. Mr. Wali knew his family didn't have enough money for a bribe, however, so he refused the interrogator's offer. He was sent to the NDS the same afternoon, he said, escorted in a taxi by two police officers and a prosecutor.
His got a little relief when NDS officers took him to a bathroom and allowed him to wash, he said, and they gave him a few minutes for prayers. Then they sent him to interrogation, the first in a series he would endure over the next month.
He was introduced to the questioner that prisoners have nicknamed Shin, meaning “green,” because of the sickly colour of his skin. Other prisoners called him Bobo, local slang for a B-52 bomber.
“His beating was like a bombing,” Mr. Wali said. “He kicked me in the head, and I fell into a table. Blood came out my nose. He told me, ‘Don't bleed on the carpet. Go wash your face.' ” The bleeding didn't stop, however, so his interrogation was suspended until the next day. The NDS wanted him to give his signature and thumbprint to a written confession, acknowledging himself as a Taliban insurgent. Some interrogators also wanted money.
“I said, ‘I have no money in my pockets,'” he said. “‘I have to call my family to bring money. Give me a phone.'” The interrogator refused, and instead demanded his relatives' phone numbers. Realizing it was useless, Mr. Wali admitted that his family was too poor to afford telephones.
The beatings continued. From his tormentors, he learned that the written accusations against him claimed that the Canadians who originally detained him had discovered two bullets in his pockets.
These two bullets, he said, were considered physical evidence of his involvement with the Taliban.
“Please, ask the Canadians, did I have two bullets?” he said, flicking a reporter's notebook with an angry gesture. Then he sighs, deflated, and slumps back against the prison wall.
The abuse stopped when the NDS sent him to Sarpoza prison, he said. He has been waiting eight months for a formal sentence.
“I saw many people who were beaten for five months, six months,” he said. “They want to put pressure on people and make them say lies. If the beating is one or two days, okay. But six months?”
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Mike Blais
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Oh yeah, lets really drag the flag through the crap, shall we.....
ICC urged to probe transfer
By ALAN FREEMAN
Thursday, April 26, 2007 – Page A18
Two human-rights professors have asked the International Criminal Court in The Hague to open an investigation into what they claim are "possible war crimes" by Canadian Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff, over Canada's transfer of detainees in Afghanistan.
Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia and William Schabas, director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway, make the allegations in a 14-page letter to the court's chief prosecutor in The Hague.
The professors allege that Mr. O'Connor and Gen. Hillier agreed to the transfer of prisoners to Afghan authorities "despite an apparent risk of torture and other forms of abuse" and have allowed the threats to continue by not renegotiating the agreement with Afghanistan on prisoner transfers.
The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes. More than 100 states have signed on as members of the court although the United States, China and other large countries still oppose its foundation.
So far, the court has received at least 1,700 communications asking it to investigate alleged crimes around the world but most have been determined to be outside the jurisdiction of the court. Three cases are currently under investigation by the prosecution involving Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
The court has dismissed several other potential cases, including one concerning the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
It seems unlikely the court will take the complaint against Canada to the level of a formal investigation. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has stated that he is primarily interested in "the gravest admissible situations" under his jurisdiction.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Hillier dismisses allegations of war crimes
Updated Thu. Apr. 26 2007 10:24 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Canada's top soldier says he is paying little attention to reports that two human rights professors have requested The Hague investigate the possibility he has committed war crimes.
Chief of Staff Gen. Rick Hillier and Defence Minsiter Gordon O'Connor have both been named in a 14-page letter to the International Criminal Court by Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia and William Schabas, director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway.
The professors claim "possible war crimes" have been committed by Hillier and O'Connor, resulting from the prisoner transfer agreement between Canada and Afghanistan, and have asked the ICC to investigate.
On Wednesday, controversy arose over the agreement amid reports that Canadian officials knew prisoners captured by Canadians and handed over to Afghans security forces were at risk of torture, abuse and even execution.
Later the same day, O'Connor announced a new deal had been struck to allow Canadians to monitor the prisoners after they are transferred.
Hillier said he has more important things to worry about than the new accusations against him.
"I concentrate on setting our young men and women, Canada's sons and daughters, up for success," Hillier said Thursday on CTV's Canada AM.
"I concentrate on reducing the risk to them as they execute that mission on our behalf, and they do execute it very, very well and so I just let, if you will, the theatrics of these kinds of things go on around me. I've got a job to do. I'm going to do that job," he said.
Hillier said the new agreement to check up on prisoners is a positive step forward in an ever-evolving relationship.
"I think it's just a logical reaction to some allegations that have taken place. And I think it's a good response to say, we'll just be more transparent and more clear going forward from here. I thought it was a very logical step and obviously we're ready to support," Hillier said.
The Globe and Mail revealed Wednesday that the federal government has received a report that raises alarm bells over the treatment of prisoners handed to Afghan security forces -- a document that officials first denied existed.
In the wake of the report in The Globe, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor told a foreign affairs committee on Wednesday that officials have now struck the new deal with the governor of Kandahar that will let them visit Afghan detainees handed over by Canadian troops.
Hillier, who signed the original handover agreement in 2005, lauded the development.
He said the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan will continue to provide mentoring within the prison system in Kandahar, but experts from Corrections Canada and the RCMP will take the lead on ensuring detainees are well treated.
Canadian troops will not be directly involved in entering Afghan prisons and monitoring prisoners, however. He said the troops' responsibility ends when the detainees are handed over.
"It's very much a supportive role. We do what is necessary to help the transparency and help ensure allegations like this are not going to be part of the future because there will be eyes on, if you will. It's very much a supportive role from the soldier's perspective," Hillier said.
He pointed out that the other NATO countries working in Afghanistan, and NATO itself, have similar policies to hand detainees over to the Afghan security forces.
"All of them do it with some confidence and an increasing engagement to build the capacity of the Afghan government to be able to handle people better, set up the appropriate prison systems," Hillier said.
He also pointed out that Afghanistan has an elected government, and is responsible to ensure its prisoners are treated well. Hillier added that he is not phased by the ongoing controversy.
Allegations rejected
On Wednesday, both O'Connor and Prime Minister Stephen Harper rejected suggestions that the government intentionally buried the fact it was aware of allegations that prisoners were being abused in the hands of Afghan authorities.
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion asked Harper during question period on Wednesday why he withheld the information that he had on received the "damning report."
But Harper insisted his government received no specific reports on possible abuse of captured Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
The prime minister said the document mentioned in the newspaper is an annual report produced for the Foreign Affairs Department that talks about the general state of the Afghan prison system.
However, he said the government has no evidence of specific allegations of abuse.
Answering a question in French, Harper conceded there are "human rights challenges'' in Afghanistan
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
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Harper, O'Connor tell different tales
Bruce Campion-Smith
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his defence minister, Gordon O'Connor, appear to be telling different stories about access to detainees turned over by Canadian troops to Afghan officials.
In one of the most raucous question periods since the Conservatives came to power in early 2006, the Prime Minister yesterday appeared to contradict what O'Connor had said the day before about an agreement with the Afghan government to allow Canadian officials access to prisons holding Taliban detainees.
Harper said there is no formal agreement yet with Afghanistan, and "we have found no evidence that access is blocked to the prisons. In fact, not only are Afghan authorities agreeing to access to the prisons, they actually agree they will formalize that agreement so there is no potential misunderstanding."
On Wednesday, O'Connor said a deal had been struck to allow Canadian officials "full access to detention facilities" and "I am pleased that Afghan officials have responded to our concerns regarding detainees."
To further complicate matters, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day later said Canadian officials have been in Afghan prisons "for a considerable period of time" and just recently reported to him about the concerns they had about prisoners in leg irons.
NDP Leader Jack Layton told the Commons: "We are watching policy being made on the fly."
"We are seeing day-by-day a patchwork quilt of inventions and fabrication," he said.
Day's assertion that two Correctional Service of Canada employees working in Kandahar's prison system are monitoring the conditions of detainees appeared to differ from what he said in February, when he announced their mission was to "provide training and mentoring to staff and prison administrators."
Also yesterday, Canada replaced its ambassador in Afghanistan, naming Arif Lalani to take the place of David Sproule, who had been there just since 2005. As well, the foreign affairs department said it is preparing to send additional personnel to Afghanistan in coming months.
The Conservative government has been trying to fend off opposition attacks all week after The Globe and Mail reported that Afghan prisoners captured by Canadians had been abused and tortured once in the custody of Afghan security forces.
When Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion asked Harper whether he still had confidence in O'Connor, the Prime Minister replied with a blistering attack:
"The fact of the matter is this: The real problem is the willingness of the leader of the Liberal party and his colleagues to believe, to repeat and to exaggerate any charge against the Canadian military as they fight these fanatics and killers who are called the Taliban. It is a disgrace."
Day responded to questions with more of the same:
"The Taliban has been told, trained and instructed to lie if asked about being tortured. As a matter of fact, Taliban are told directly to say they were tortured even if they were not," he said, calling the Taliban "the most serious killers in the 21st century." But the government was on the defensive as cabinet ministers scrambled to fill in the details of O'Connor's bombshell about a new deal with Afghan authorities.
While the defence minister said Wednesday that the deal had been reached "within the last few days," other cabinet ministers said yesterday a new agreement had yet to be reached. Conservative MP Helena Guergis, secretary of state for foreign affairs and international trade, said the department would be "drafting" a formal agreement.
Opposition critics ridiculed the shifting positions.
"Everybody is trying to understand the new story of the government," Dion said.
The Conservatives looked under siege as cabinet ministers and even the Prime Minister ducked out back doors to avoid reporters waiting in the Commons foyer.
The Afghanistan embassy issued a statement that an ongoing investigation into the claims of torture has turned up "no evidence thus far of abuse or mistreatment that may have taken place as alleged."
The embassy confirmed that an agreement to "facilitate" access by Canadian officials to detention centres in Kandahar is being worked on.
"The government has and will continue to provide access to any party that requests access to detention centres and to individuals," the statement said.
O'Connor's surprise revelation came after months of insisting that the existing prisoner transfer agreement offered adequate protections.
"Within the last few days we basically have made an arrangement with the government in the Kandahar province so that we can have access to our detainees," O'Connor told the foreign affairs committee.
His news caught Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay off guard. Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff, contradicted O'Connor's initial claim that defence officials would be responsible for the prison monitoring.
Neither the defence nor the foreign affairs department yesterday could provide a written copy of the new "arrangement."
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Well, i think someone in authority had best get someone that they can trust to get over there and find out the "truth"...our guys are being put in a terrible spot over all this and only someone on the ground really knows what the truth is..c'mon PM lets get the truth on this and deal with it and support our people over there and give them the tools they need...ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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Mike Blais
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How bout this guy. He is not Canadians but at least what he says sounds sincere and is not, as in the case of contradictory comments by O'Connor, Day and the PM, based on politicial expediency.
Afghan ambassador says Canada has not monitored prisoners
Juliet O’Neill
CanWest News Service
Friday, April 27, 2007
OTTAWA — Urging an end to the "political circus" over Afghan detainees, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada says no Canadians, including corrections officers, have monitored treatment of prisoners turned over by Canadian military forces.
However, Ambassador Omar Samad said in a Global National interview that Canadian officials will soon have "unrestricted access" to prisons under an agreement currently being worked out with Canada in the wake of political uproar over alleged torture of detainees.
Samad contradicted assertions by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day that Corrections Canada officers have been monitoring prisoner treatment — an assertion Day repeated in the Commons Friday, saying they are there "to see if there are cases of torture."
Samad said Corrections Canada officers have for many months, under their mandate to help build Afghan police capacity, had access to some prisons in Afghanistan and may have come across prisoners.
"It doesn't mean those were detention centres of people who were arrested by Canadian forces," Samad said. "So if this has created confusion, I think that we all need to take a step back and define what we're talking about and to bring some clarity to this instead of turning it into a political circus."
"From the Afghan point of view, it's clear there was no followup or monitoring of detainees caught by Canadian forces turned over to Afghans, especially to the NDS [National Directorate of Security] that took place prior to this current time."
Day came under fire in the Commons earlier, with opposition MPs saying the corrections officers, sent in February to help prison reconstruction efforts, have no mandate to monitor prisoners or enforce a Canada-Afghanistan prisoner transfer agreement.
The minister had trumpeted their role Thursday after three days of confusion and contradiction about alleged abuse of prisoners turned over by Canadian troops, access to Afghan prisons and enforcement of a Canada-Afghan prisoner transfer agreement under which the Afghan human rights commission was to monitor prisoner treatment.
Day had said Thursday that corrections staff had made 15 visits to Afghan jails. But his spokeswoman, Melissa Leclerc, had said later they have no mandate to monitor prisoner treatment.
On Friday, Day told the Commons "they are there to support the Afghan officers by training them in the work that they do in the prisons and also to ensure, to see if there are cases of torture."
After question period, deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor should be "put out of his misery" after five days of contradictions and confusion on the Afghan detainee affair.
And former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler told reporters that Canadians must be trained specifically to recognize torture and abuse if they are going to be part of a systematic monitoring system.
"You can't have a drive-by inquiry by some corrections officials who may in fact not even know that it's part of their mandate to monitor the detainees and to understand if there have been situations of torture and inhumane treatment," Cotler said.
Samad said Afghanistan will investigate "if there really have been abuses," and he said cooler heads should prevail "instead of making this more and more confusing for everyone."
He added his issue is not how Canadian politicians have handled the controversy. "My issue is how Afghanistan and my country and my government and my people are portrayed and seen through this political debate that is taking place, which in many cases is not accurate."
He said Afghanistan wants to correct any mistakes that have been made, any abuse that has taken place.
"We are serious about our obligations under international law and Afghan laws," he said.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
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Garbett D.K.
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Kellogg, Brown and Root? New names to me Mike. I'll be sure to source them out over the weekend....though I suspect they are deeply tied into the Homeland Security network operating at arms length from Haliburton.
Figures Stockwell Day came up with this gem of an idea.
One can expect no less from a man who holds the belief that the Earth is five thousand years old, man co-existed with the dinosaurs and that biblical text is literal.
It heartens me greatly however that the Flintstones, under a Stockwellian government, will now be featured on the documentary channel.
Obviously the lycra jet ski suit was a tad too tight.
Regarding Haliburton, I did hear today ( on NPR, National Public Radio ) that there are some...uh...irregularities.... in accounting regarding a good number of contracts held by Haliburton and its subsidiaries.
Too the tune of several billion US dollars. Missing.
Thats a lot of zeros folks.
On both sides of the negotiating table. Yeah, sure, we can trust them with our border. Uh huh.
Thanks for the heads up Mike, This interests me a great deal.
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Mike Blais
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