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General Walter Natynczyk, Abused prisoner not detained by Canada

by Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke | December 9, 2009 at 03:55 am

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There is a storm brewing in Canada and I don.t mean a winter storm. A parliamentary committee is looking into allegations of prisoner abuse of detainees handed to Afghan authorities by Canadian Forces.

The allegations, supported by e-mails and documentaries submitted by Richard Colvin, point the finger at DND, Foreign Affairs and the Canadian government for doing nothing when they were informed that prisoners, handed over by Canadians were being tortured in Afghan prisons. Some committee members have accused the government of war crimes.

Three Canadian Generals, General Rick Hillier, Lieutenant General Gauthier and Major General David Fraser along with the now Canadian Ambassador to China, Mulroney, have denied these allegations and denounced the testimony of the whistleblower Richard Colvin.

Retired Canadian Diplomats have criticized the governments treatment of Richard Colvin, who is now occupying a post in Washington, D.C.

A military police report indicates that a prisoner handed over by the Canadian Forces was in fact abused by the Canadian Forces.

General Walter Natynczyk, Chief of the Defence Staff, told a Parliamentary Committee on Tuesday, that although the prisoner was questioned by Canadian Forces, he was in fact captured by the Afghans. Natynczyk said the Military Police Corporal, who submitted the report, was not on the ground in Kandahar at the time. Natynczyk said he confirmed this information with the platoon commander on the ground at the time.

Whether or not this is a play with words or semantics I leave for the reader to judge. Since I have personally known Walt Natynczyk since 1980, I will keep my thoughts to myself.

"We didn't take this person under custody," he said.

Opposition parties have pointed to the June 2006 incident as proof the Conservative government knew of credible incidents of torture and of the dangers of transferring prisoners.

Notes from a military police officer suggest the prisoner was captured by Canadians and turned over to the Afghans, and his account is backed up by the sworn testimony of two other officers.

But Natynczyk said the man was released and picked up almost immediately by Afghan police, who led him away and started beating him with their shoes. Canadian troops then rescued the suspect from the Afghan police, he said.

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Uwe Paschen

at 04:05 on December 9th, 2009

I do remember that in 2007 allegation of this came to Ottawa and some MP's went to Afghanistan, after wish they dismissed the allegations and blamed the Afghan government.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 04:12 on December 9th, 2009

Yes I really think that four Generals, two which I know very well, have put themselves out on a limb. They actually stopped handing over detainees in April 2007 and then put a more robust system of monitoring in place.

The problem prior to that, to my understanding, was that record keeping by the Canadian Forces was dismal to say the least and the reporting system to the IRC went via Ottawa to Geneva and back up to Kabul.

Other nations were reporting directly to the IRC in Kabul.

Iffy (not verified)

at 04:38 on December 9th, 2009

In the final instance, this is a problem for a) the Afghanistan governmnet, b) the international community of organisations, like IRC, UN etc. This is not something that traduces Canada's armed force one iota. What other people do with their own people is something we can't control. Period. How many times have we travelled to developing countries rife with injustice and abuse and used any number of services that may - or may not - be supporting abusers? You, know there is only so much you can do. It is a problem for the international organisations.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 04:49 on December 9th, 2009

I agree Iffy, apparently the Dutch had a solution to this and wanted to build a prison in conjunction with Canada and the UK. This never came to fruition. Building a prison for detainees would have incurred additional manpower, not to speak of funding. Since the mission was in support of the Afghan government, where do you draw the line?

I think, to some extent, the opposition parties are playing politics with this issue. If reversed, I believe the Conservatives would have played the same game.