Globe: General defends detainee policy - High-ranking Canadian soldier in Afghanistan addresses concerns about prison abuse
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Saturday, June 3, 2006, General defends detainee policy - High-ranking Canadian soldier in Afghanistan addresses concerns about prison abuse, Graeme Smith, Globe and Mail
KANDAHAR -- Canada's top military commander in southern Afghanistan says he feels comfortable with the way detainees are treated after Canadian soldiers hand them over to Afghan authorities, despite one estimate that nearly a third of them are abused or tortured.
"The Afghan people here are not all torturers," Brigadier-General David Fraser said in an interview yesterday. "We respect the laws and the rights of individuals. We will make sure those rights are maintained and nothing bad happens to those people."
Recent battles with insurgents have left hundreds of suspected Taliban fighters detained in Kandahar city, according to human-rights observers. Part of the reason for the influx has been a shift in strategy by Canada's military, which signed a deal in December to transfer detainees into Afghan custody instead of giving them to the U.S. military.
The new arrangement allows more independent scrutiny of prison conditions, but the observers' findings have proved unsettling.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, the largest human-rights group in the country, has photographed bruises of several prisoners who say they were beaten. In a separate interview, the brother of one Taliban suspect said the detainee was hung by his chained wrists and beaten for four hours.
Last week, a CTV television crew travelling with Canadian troops recorded radio chatter of a soldier saying he's concerned that Afghan forces were preparing to summarily execute a man caught in a raid: "Either we take him or he gets executed," the soldier said, although the detainee was later turned over a different group of Afghans.
It was the second time that embedded journalists with Canadian troops had heard about Afghan soldiers planning to kill a captive.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was asked yesterday whether it was appropriate that Canadians turn prisoners over to the Afghan government given that they could be subjected to abuse.
"We have a current agreement with the Afghan government and that agreement protects Canada's international obligations," Mr. Harper said after a speech in Montreal. "And obviously we will stay in touch with Afghan authorities to make sure all agreements are honoured."
Some legal experts have expressed concern that the agreement is flawed, because it doesn't have enough safeguards. Gen. Fraser said his soldiers are taking extra precautions to choose Afghan security forces that will accept prisoners without harming them.
"We take a lot of time and effort to develop a relationship with the Afghan security forces here, so if there are detainees, we hand them over to the right Afghan security force that will do the right thing," the commander said. "We don't just hand them over to any Afghan.
"There's a decision process to say, 'Okay, we have cultivated a relationship with Afghan security forces down here to make sure that if there are detainees they're handled accordingly and handed off to the right authority.' And we're very, very diligent about how we do that."
When asked whether the Canadian military tries to confirm whether its Afghan allies are treating prisoners properly, Gen. Fraser shook his head. "The ICRC follows up on those issues," he said, referring to the Red Cross.
The commander added that the Canadians must allow Afghan authorities to exercise their sovereignty by handling prisoners themselves.
"This is their country; these are Afghans we're talking about," Gen. Fraser said. "This is an Afghan challenge that Afghans will deal with in their way."
The problem is that the Afghan way of treating prisoners often includes violence, said Abdul Noorzai, director of the Kandahar office for the AIHRC, a human-rights body set up by the Bonn Agreement that established rules for Afghanistan's reconstruction.
Mr. Noorzai said his staffers regularly visit Kandahar's three main jails to learn about prisoner conditions, and they estimate that about 30 per cent of them suffered some kind of abuse, he said.
Afghan forces also use prisons to extort bribes by demanding money for freedom, Mr. Noorzai said.
Still, he added, placing detainees in Afghan custody is preferable to handing them over to the Americans, who often hold prisoners incommunicado without telling their families where they are or whether they're alive. Sometimes when Afghan men are detained in U.S. custody and presumed dead, their wives remarry, sparking conflicts if the men are later released.
"Now, at least, we know what's happening to them," Mr. Noorzai said.
KANDAHAR -- Canada's top military commander in southern Afghanistan says he feels comfortable with the way detainees are treated after Canadian soldiers hand them over to Afghan authorities, despite one estimate that nearly a third of them are abused or tortured.
"The Afghan people here are not all torturers," Brigadier-General David Fraser said in an interview yesterday. "We respect the laws and the rights of individuals. We will make sure those rights are maintained and nothing bad happens to those people."
Recent battles with insurgents have left hundreds of suspected Taliban fighters detained in Kandahar city, according to human-rights observers. Part of the reason for the influx has been a shift in strategy by Canada's military, which signed a deal in December to transfer detainees into Afghan custody instead of giving them to the U.S. military.
The new arrangement allows more independent scrutiny of prison conditions, but the observers' findings have proved unsettling.
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, the largest human-rights group in the country, has photographed bruises of several prisoners who say they were beaten. In a separate interview, the brother of one Taliban suspect said the detainee was hung by his chained wrists and beaten for four hours.
Last week, a CTV television crew travelling with Canadian troops recorded radio chatter of a soldier saying he's concerned that Afghan forces were preparing to summarily execute a man caught in a raid: "Either we take him or he gets executed," the soldier said, although the detainee was later turned over a different group of Afghans.
It was the second time that embedded journalists with Canadian troops had heard about Afghan soldiers planning to kill a captive.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was asked yesterday whether it was appropriate that Canadians turn prisoners over to the Afghan government given that they could be subjected to abuse.
"We have a current agreement with the Afghan government and that agreement protects Canada's international obligations," Mr. Harper said after a speech in Montreal. "And obviously we will stay in touch with Afghan authorities to make sure all agreements are honoured."
Some legal experts have expressed concern that the agreement is flawed, because it doesn't have enough safeguards. Gen. Fraser said his soldiers are taking extra precautions to choose Afghan security forces that will accept prisoners without harming them.
"We take a lot of time and effort to develop a relationship with the Afghan security forces here, so if there are detainees, we hand them over to the right Afghan security force that will do the right thing," the commander said. "We don't just hand them over to any Afghan.
"There's a decision process to say, 'Okay, we have cultivated a relationship with Afghan security forces down here to make sure that if there are detainees they're handled accordingly and handed off to the right authority.' And we're very, very diligent about how we do that."
When asked whether the Canadian military tries to confirm whether its Afghan allies are treating prisoners properly, Gen. Fraser shook his head. "The ICRC follows up on those issues," he said, referring to the Red Cross.
The commander added that the Canadians must allow Afghan authorities to exercise their sovereignty by handling prisoners themselves.
"This is their country; these are Afghans we're talking about," Gen. Fraser said. "This is an Afghan challenge that Afghans will deal with in their way."
The problem is that the Afghan way of treating prisoners often includes violence, said Abdul Noorzai, director of the Kandahar office for the AIHRC, a human-rights body set up by the Bonn Agreement that established rules for Afghanistan's reconstruction.
Mr. Noorzai said his staffers regularly visit Kandahar's three main jails to learn about prisoner conditions, and they estimate that about 30 per cent of them suffered some kind of abuse, he said.
Afghan forces also use prisons to extort bribes by demanding money for freedom, Mr. Noorzai said.
Still, he added, placing detainees in Afghan custody is preferable to handing them over to the Americans, who often hold prisoners incommunicado without telling their families where they are or whether they're alive. Sometimes when Afghan men are detained in U.S. custody and presumed dead, their wives remarry, sparking conflicts if the men are later released.
"Now, at least, we know what's happening to them," Mr. Noorzai said.
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