NATO commander not aware of specific torture cases

cbc news
NATO's top commander in southern Afghanistan said on Thursday he's not aware of prisoners being tortured after they're transferred to local Afghan authorities, but that doesn't mean the prison and police systems don't need improvement.

Responding to news that Canadians have a new arrangement to inspect detention facilities, Dutch Maj.-Gen Ton van Loon said he has not heard of "any specific cases" of abuse in the six months he has been in charge of NATO troops.

"I have not been given any reason to think that they have taken place," he told CBC News.

Van Loon said he and his officials talk regularly with Afghan police and the country's intelligence service, who have assured him that there is no abuse and no torture. Even so, he said NATO soldiers need to keep working with the Afghans.

"This country is developing a police [force] from scratch and we need to make sure we get this as fast as we can up to the standard that we take for granted in our countries," said Van Loon, who transfers power to another officer next week.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said on Wednesday the Canadian military has arranged to monitor the prisoners it hands over to Afghan security forces to ensure they are not tortured.

Deal grants 'full access' to detention centres

"Military officials have made contact with the National Directorate of Security (NDS) regional director, General Quy-aum, for security in Kandahar [province]. He agreed to provide full access to detention facilities," a statement from O'Connor's office said.

"We will establish continuous liaison with the prison authorities for the purpose of verifying the state of detainees," said the statement, released after O'Connor was grilled by the parliamentary foreign affairs committee on the treatment of Afghan detainees.

Opposition MPs during question period accused the minister of being part of a coverup. Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh alleged that O'Connor had misled the public on Canada's ability to monitor detainees and of burying a report flagging allegations of torture in Afghan prisons.

According to the Globe and Mail newspaper, a report prepared for Foreign Affairs by Canadian diplomats in Kabul warned the government last year about Afghanistan's poor human rights record and allegations of torture.

The Globe said the Department of Foreign Affairs at first flatly denied it had any such report, which the paper said was heavily censored before it was released under an Access to Information request.

MacKay denies coverup allegations

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay called the coverup accusations "patently false," while Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the report dealt with the "general concerns" over the state of the Afghan prison system.

O'Connor said under a previous arrangement, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission had guaranteed that it would report any abuses to the Canadian government.

On Thursday, the minister said the recently secured new arrangement allows Canadians to enter detention facilities at "any time."

Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of Canada's defence staff, said civilian staff at Kandahar air base have been assigned the task of checking on detainees.

Thirty Afghan detainees have claimed they were beaten, whipped, given electric shocks and denied food once they were transferred from the custody of the Canadian military to Afghan security forces.

Canada signed an agreement with Afghanistan in 2005 that committed Canadian soldiers to hand over captured Taliban prisoners to local authorities.