OTTAWA — A Canadian diplomat who sounded the alarm on the torture of Afghan detainees has fired back to correct “inaccurate or incomplete” testimony from other witnesses.
In a 16-page letter to the special committee of MPs studying the detainee issue, Richard Colvin lists a series of reports from the provincial reconstruction team, embassy, the United Nations and the U.S. State Department warning of “substantial risk of torture” in prisons — especially at the hands of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security. He also refutes claims by top military and government brass that problems were fixed as soon as officials were informed of potential abuse.
“All this information — internal reporting from Canadian officials in the field, reports from the U.S. and UN, plus face-to-face interventions with policy-makers — had no visible impact on Canadian detainee practices,” he wrote.
Colvin said even after Canada signed a memorandum of understanding on detainees that gave us the right to monitor prisoners, Canadian officials did not take steps to ensure prisoners were not subject to mistreatment.
Colvin’s letter rebuts testimony from Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Canada’s former chief of defence staff, retired general Rick Hillier, and cites at least three “credible” accounts of Afghan detainees who claimed they were shocked with electricity, beaten and hit with cables, or showed signs of trauma and physical scars.
The letter brought fresh calls from opposition MPs for a public inquiry. Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh said it “demolishes” the Conservative position and points to a “massive cover-up.”
“These are not the Progressive Conservatives of the Mulroney era. They are more in tune with the Bush-Cheney doctrine that the enemy of the enemy is a friend and that all is fair in war,” he said.
The NDP also blasted the Conservative government’s bid to suppress information and thwart public hearings.
“Mr. Colvin’s letter blows the government’s arguments to bits,” said NDP MP Paul Dewar.
But Conservative MP Laurie Hawn, parliamentary secretary to MacKay, insisted there is “nothing substantially new” in Colvin’s letter and accused the opposition of suggesting Canadian soldiers have committed war crimes for political gain.
“The opposition is second-guessing the actions of the Canadian Forces with four years of hindsight, from 12,000 kilometres away, from the safety of their comfortable offices,” he said.
U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal also weighed in after a speech in Ottawa.
“Any potential allegation of prisoners being mistreated is a concern for all of us,” he said. “I am not aware of specific allegations in this, but clearly I think that as we try to maintain the credibility of the government of Afghanistan and coalition forces, it’s got to be a zero tolerance policy on mistreatment of prisoners or anybody.”
kathleen.harris@sunmedia.ca
