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Cdn Parliamentary Commission-investigates handling Afghan POWs

by Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke | November 18, 2009 at 04:42 am

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What happens to Taliban prisoners captured by Canadians on the battlefied? This is presently investigated by a Canadian Parliamentary Commission. There are allegations of prisoner abuse of those handed over to the Afghan authorities. The allegations also point to the fact that senior Canadian officials in the Defence and Foreign Affairs Departments were aware of torture of those prisoners by Afghan authorities. The allegations suggest that the PMO (Prime Minister's Office), including the Prime Minister himself may have been aware of those facts.

Richard Colvin, a senior Foreign Affairs Diplomat, who had the number two job in Afghanistan, is expected to raise some uproar today. He is expected to testify that he visited prisoners several time. During his visits he was told of torture using electric wire to shock testicals, standing for 24 hours while being interogated, among others.

Colvin is expected to reveal that he send several memos to senior Defence and Foreign Affairs officials.

Canadian Forces in Afghanistan have no capability to hold prisoners. The Canadian contingent numbers 2800 troops and a battle group of about 1200 does the heavy lifting in Forward Observation Bases set up outside the wire of Kandahar Airfield (KAF).

When prisoners are captured they are searched by the combat troops, tagged and send to Battle group headquarters. A quick interrogation takes place to get time sensitive information before troops are send back to the Canadian contingent headquarters. Those headquarters then handed prisoner over to Afghan authorites. The practice was suspended when this news came to light.

The testimony of a Canadian diplomat before a parliamentary committee Wednesday is likely to provide disturbing information about the government's handling of Afghan detainees, CBC News has learned.

The testimony of diplomat Richard Colvin is expected to provide details of what sources describe as an "unusual system" that saw Afghan detainees transferred to Afghan prisons, with little care about the conditions there.

"I think it will be a difficult story for Canadians," a source told the CBC, adding they could be both surprised and disturbed by what Colvin says.

Opposition MPs are expected to focus their questions to Colvin on what the government knew about the alleged abuse of Afghan detainees and what it chose to do about it.

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YankeeJim

at 05:43 on November 18th, 2009

There are too few Canadians on the ground to handle POWs, though that is why this is a UN mission. What does the UN mission commander advise regarding the handling of POWs?

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 05:48 on November 18th, 2009

Jim the UN is a figurehead only. NATO is actually in charge of this mission which is sanctioned by the UN. The UN has never been able to conduct military operations on its own. Rwanda and Bosnia provide ample examples of that.

I am not sure what the US does with prisoners, but I will do some research.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 05:54 on November 18th, 2009

From the article below it would appear that this is NATO policy to hand over prisoners to Afghan authorities.

So NATO countries have essentially opted out of the detainee business. Before committing their troops to combat areas, the Canadian, Dutch and British governments signed agreements with the Afghan government stating that any captured fighters would be handed over to Afghan authorities rather than to American forces.

In practice, these agreements mean that NATO troops have no system in place for regularly interrogating Taliban fighters for intelligence purposes. Whenever possible, they let the Afghan troops they operate with take custody. When that's not possible, they house their prisoners briefly in makeshift facilities while they arrange a transfer to the Afghans. NATO guidelines call for the handover of prisoners within 96 hours, far too brief a time for soldiers to even know whom they're holding. And once prisoners are in Afghan hands, international forces easily lose track of them.

marianmo

at 06:21 on November 18th, 2009

ty for this story

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 06:25 on November 18th, 2009

Very welcome:)

Amy Judd

at 09:11 on November 18th, 2009

This is a really interesting set of questions, it will be even more interesting to see what comes out of it.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 09:38 on November 18th, 2009

It is indeed, I am interested in what Colvin has to say and then see how it was handled by the Defence Department and Foreign Affairs.

General Rick Hillier addressed this issue in his book "A Soldier First". He describes the whole issue and allegations by the opposition parties and media questions. For a time the practice of handing over prisoners to Afghan authorities was stopped. He sums the whole affair up as follows:

The Government of Canada was well aware of our decisions, and Foreign Affairs, with CIDA, the RCMP and Correctional Service of Canada, were mandated to help Afghans improve. Thus, for weeks while those improvements were happening, we held those captured in an interim facility on Kandahar Airfield. Fortunately, the pause coincided with a lull in operations and hence a reduction in the numbers of prisoners.

marianmo

at 09:47 on November 18th, 2009

ty for the additional information

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 11:05 on November 18th, 2009

I gladly add these comments as they are stories that are never told by our media. It's called lazy fact checking. Instead of basing stories on opposition allegations (and this happened to the Liberals as well), maybe our parliamentary press gallery journalists should talk to Department heads.