Torture: Top military commander wouldn't say how many times the transfers were stopped

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Murray Brewster
THE CANADIAN PRESS

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HALIFAX - An Afghan agency, at one time entrusted to monitor Canadian-captured insurgents in Kandahar, says it has documented nearly 400 cases of torture across the war-ravaged country.

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The Canadian Press

Defence Minister Peter MacKay fields a question as Gen. Walter Natynczyk, left, chief of the defence staff, looks on at the Halifax International Security Forum in Halifax on Sunday.

The latest report from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, a translated version of which was obtained by The Canadian Press, comes as Canada's top military commander confirmed the army halted transferring prisoners to Afghan authorities on more than one occasion.

Speaking at the close of an international security conference in Halifax, Gen. Walt Natynczyk wouldn't say how many times the transfers were stopped.

There has been only one occasion when the federal government has publicly acknowledged that the army stopped handing over prisoners - in November 2007 - because of torture concerns.

The general said he couldn't offer details because he didn't want to pre-empt statements that former military commanders are expected to make before a special House of Commons committee this week.

The human-rights report and Natynczyk's comments were made amid the ongoing political firestorm created by former diplomat Richard Colvin, who last week dropped a bombshell when he alleged that all Canadian-captured prisoners were abused early in the mission.

The Conservative government has described Colvin's allegation as hearsay, unsubstantiated and "simply not credible."

However, the Afghan commission said it uncovered 47 cases of abuse in Kandahar, which was ranked third in terms of the number of abuse claims in the country.

"Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment are common in the majority of law enforcement institutions, and at least 98.5 per cent of interviewed victims have been tortured," said the commission's April 2009 study.

The independent study, which tracked abuse claims between 2001 and early 2008, shows the vast majority of them - 243 - were levelled in 2006 and 2007.

The human rights commission, which is funded and mentored by Canada, signed a formal agreement with Ottawa in February 2007 to monitor prisoners captured by Canadian soldiers.

The deal was scrapped when the Conservative government rewrote its transfer arrangement with the Afghan government a few months later and began its own regular prison visits.

It is unclear whether Canadian diplomats have ever examined the evidence uncovered by the commission - either in the latest controversy or when allegations of abuse by Afghans first became public in spring 2007.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who has led the charge to discredit Colvin's allegations, said he doesn't know whether the Foreign Affairs Department has looked at the prisoner interviews.

"I couldn't comment on a veracity or the evidence that's found within the pages of those reports," MacKay said.

"What I can tell you is, what has been placed before a Parliamentary committee thus far is simply not credible. There is not a single, proven allegation."

The human rights commission report said 14 per cent of the torture cases involved Afghanistan's notorious intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security.

NATO forces, including Canada, usually hand over their prisoners to the NDS.

The human rights report said that iron rods, electric shocks and beatings constituted the preferred methods of torture and most often it was done to extract a confession.

The top Afghan provinces for torture were Kapisa, northeast of Kabul, and Herat in the western part of the country.

The vast majority of the abuse was carried out by Afghan police officers, according to the report.

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said there is a mountain of evidence in reports from other agencies, including the U.S. government.

"It's Minister MacKay's word against the facts reported by the AIHRC, Amnesty International and even the U.S. State Department," he said.