Sending our detainees to those who use torture

[elevennevele]

I’ve never felt so ashamed as a Canadian. I don’t know if I’m sad, angry, or what with all this. I don’t give a damn who anyone votes for but this party under Harper is immoral and to support them is to sell the soul of this country.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...3/BNStory/Afghanistan/home/?pageRequested=all

Exclusive investigation
From Canadian custody into cruel hands
Savage beatings, electrocution, whipping and extreme cold: Detainees detail a litany of abuses by Afghan authorities

GRAEME SMITH

From Monday's Globe and Mail

April 23, 2007 at 1:17 AM EST

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Afghans detained by Canadian soldiers and sent to Kandahar's notorious jails say they were beaten, whipped, starved, frozen, choked and subjected to electric shocks during interrogation.

In 30 face-to-face interviews with men recently captured in Kandahar province, a Globe and Mail investigation has uncovered a litany of gruesome stories and a clear pattern of abuse by the Afghan authorities who work closely with Canadian troops, despite Canada's assurances that the rights of detainees are protected.

Canadian forces regularly hold detainees for a few days of questioning at Kandahar Air Field, then give them to the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's feared intelligence police. Over and over, detainees described how Canadians tied their hands with plastic straps, marking the start of nightmarish journeys through shadowy jails and blood-spattered interrogation rooms.

None of the abuse was inflicted by Canadians, and most Afghans captured — 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.

Mahmad Gul, 33, an impoverished farmer, said he was interrogated for three days in May of 2006, without any meals, at Zhari District Centre, a small town west of Kandahar city.

His tormentors were the Afghan police, he said, but the Canadian soldiers who visited him between beatings had surely heard his screams.

“The Canadians told me, ‘Give them real information, or they will do more bad things to you,' “ Mr. Gul said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070424.wabuse0424/BNStory/National/home

Harper refuses to cease transfers, sack O'Connor

TENILLE BONOGUORE

Globe and Mail Update

April 24, 2007 at 3:28 PM EST

The federal government is waiting for media reports of abuse and torture against Afghan detainees to be proven true before it takes action, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Commons on Tuesday.

For the second day running, the Conservative government endured a barrage of irate demands from opposition parties to immediately cease all detainee transfers between Canada and Afghanistan and to sack Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor.

 

[elevennevele]

With any potential truth to such allegations, such transfers should be immediately halted. There can be no ‘wait and see’. If such a possibility of torture exists then we can not risk becoming a further accessory to war crimes. It’s that simple. No political spin, it’s just that simple.

 

[north49guy]

I say that you cant let the people run free. They should leave things the way they are and go and investigate, punish those who are doing wrong.

 

[elevennevele]

I say that you cant let the people run free. They should leave things the way they are and go and investigate, punish those who are doing wrong.

Run free? I’m not saying we then let combatants go free. However, if we can’t prevent combatants from being tortured because we are not able to handle the responsibility for them once captured, then we have no business being in Afghanistan. This situation we are in is more about choice than dire necessity for our nation. It’s a commitment that if we have chosen to undertake, we then have to do it with honour. This ruins our military and our country’s honour in the world and endangers them more to such treatment in turn if we lose any men and women to capture.

Remember, we are the occupation. We are the supposed part of the authority there. The sell on this situation is that we are there to try to put into place our values, our standards of either democracy or lawfulness in the very least possible way. Torture, is beyond admissible for Canada even in war.

If we become admissible to torture of those initially under our responsibility then not only are we not worthy of having a presence in Afghanistan, if one can argue for that. However, much greater an issue than that is we lessen the worth of our very own country. We are basically trashing our own country’s standard of civility in the world and what we are to be known for.

UNACCEPTABLE!!

 

[tamarin]

We should just leave the hellhole and let the savages do what they please. I haven't an ounce of sympathy for the country or its inhabitants. No young Canadian should serve and die in such a wretchedly backward country.

 

[elevennevele]

WHAT A DISGRACE!!!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv....wdetaineereport0425/BNStory/Afghanistan/home


PRISONERS IN AFGHANISTAN
What Ottawa doesn't want you to know
Government was told detainees faced 'extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial'

PAUL KORING

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

April 25, 2007 at 1:00 AM EST

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, the government 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 "Extrajudicial 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.

The report leaves untouched many 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."