Last night Aaron Wherry provided a few links to articles that undermine the Conservative insistence that they had no reason to believe there was a problem regarding the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan and that Richard Colvin is the only person on the planet who seems to think there was. In reviewing the material I'd collected I came across another relevant story published by the Toronto Star on May 1, 2007.
Foreign affairs staff directly involved with overseeing Canada's Afghan mission were told last year about disturbing reports of growing human rights abuses within Afghan detention facilities.
Sam Zarifi, of Human Rights Watch, says he personally delivered that message when he met with Canadian officials on the "Afghanistan desk" at foreign affairs headquarters in Ottawa in the latter part of 2006.
Zarifi speaks of reports he and other members of his agency had received of ill treatment of prisoners by the National Directorate of Security, the same Afghan intelligence agency that Colvin names as the one to which detainees were turned over by Canadian forces. Zarifi also mentions that he expressed similar concerns to both the British and Dutch governments and their officials took appropriate steps.
"Canadians didn't and that's a mystery.
"We know that one of the main suggestions we had, namely that they have to monitor the detainees, was not taken onboard," Zarifi said.
No matter how much the Conservatives bluster about his lack of credibility, Colvin's charges don't come out of the blue. High ranking Canadian officials, both civilian and military, had good reason to believe there was a problem at the time even without Colvin's reports. They chose to do nothing.
I know that most Canadians do not read the international press, or follow human rights reports closely, but everyone in the world knows that torture has been endemic and systematic in Afghan prisons over the last 8 years.
For a good summary, see Ahmed Rashid's book, Descent Into Chaos.
Don't be confused by Tory lies that no one knew what was happening.
Just because the apologetic Canadian press didn't touch this topic until 2007/08, doesn't mean that the rest of us didn't know what was going down.
Harper and Hillier are surely guilty of war crimes in this matter -- of knowingly handing over prisoners to torture.
Furthermore, we all know that torture was taking place at Kandahar Air Field, where Canadian troops are based. There is no way in hell that they didn't know of torture taking place there.
John Geddes at Maclean's quotes a letter from Human Rights Watch dated Nov. 27, 2006:
"... Given the ferocity of the fighting in these areas, the absence of more detainees raises two alarming alternatives: either that NATO forces are not taking detainees, or, more likely, that NATO forces are circumventing their bilateral agreements by immediately turning over detainees to Afghan authorities and thus abrogating their responsibility to monitor the detainees’ treatment...."
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/11/19/was-richard-colvin-all-alone-in-his-concerns/
Which would echo Zarifi's point that NATO went into this without putting the proper procedures in place. They were fakin' it.
Sounds as though MacKay went into full character-assassination mode against Colvin today: CBC report here, and if you look to your right, you can click on the MacKay/Solomon video.
It sounds as though MacKay was actually more revolting in the Commons than in that interview -- claims that Colvin was duped by the people "who throw acid in the face of schoolgirls." Ah, Peter MacKay, great champion of women's equality ...
claims that Colvin was duped by the people "who throw acid in the face of schoolgirls."
Which says more about MacKay than about Colvin.
We've been told for years now, and increasingly in recent years, that only a small percentage of the insurgents are fundamentalist Taliban. Many are just Pashtun who feel that they're defending their homeland against an occupier who's siding with the opposition in a civil war. And we've been reminded recently that there's no reason to assume that just because an Afghan was detained that it automatically makes him an insurgent, never mind a Taliban.
But MacKay can't help coming back to the assumption that everyone who was detained was an evil terrorist Taliban. If he can't maintain a good understanding of the real situation on the ground then he's a lousy Minister of Defence. Among other things.