Afghanistan will investigate allegations of prisoner torture
16 November, 2007
UNITED NATIONS: Afghanistan said it will investigate allegations that prisoners transferred by NATO forces to Afghan custody are tortured.
The pledge by President Hamid Karzai came as NATO once again stated it had no evidence of systematic torture once the prisoners have been handed over, local media reported on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier cited the NATO statement in an exchange in the Commons on Wednesday that saw Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe call on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to halt prisoner transfers by Canadian troops in Afghanistan.
If we have evidence, the Afghan government will do an investigation," Bernier said in English after reminding the House at length in French that the governments of Canada and Afghanistan had a recently enhanced agreement in place that provides for transfer oversight and safeguards.
The Foreign Affairs and Defence departments were preparing Wednesday to announce the government’s next response to Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, after a Federal Court ruled Nov. 5 that their challenge to Canada’s detainee policy could proceed despite Defence Department opposition.
The two groups have requested a judicial review of the way Canada treats suspects arrested in Afghanistan.
On Monday, Amnesty released a 40-page report saying claims of torture were now so widespread that NATO forces should suspend transfers until Afghan detention facilities have been reformed.
Although NATO says it is unaware of "systematic" torture, a senior Netherlands-based commander admitted Wednesday the organization knows some mistreatment has taken place.
"We are aware of individual cases where employees in Afghan prisons committed actions that, according to international law, certainly do not meet our expectations," German Gen. Egon Ramms, executive head of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, told Deutche Welle.
He also said Canadian troops in Kandahar province, where the bulk of Canada’s 2,500-strong ISAF operates, stopped handing over prisoners until their safety and human rights could be guaranteed, the news agency reported.
A statement from Afghanistan’s foreign ministry said Karzai has appointed a commission to "seriously investigate the issue."
It added that Afghanistan is "against any physical and mental torture" and is "committed to all international human rights standards, which are also stated in the Afghan constitution."
But in what was widely interpreted as a tacit admission mistreatment takes place, Karzai last week ordered authorities to stop torturing suspects.
Canada is among five of the 37 countries participating in the 40,000-strong ISAF force that has signed memorandum of understanding agreements with the Afghan government that speak to detainee transfers.
"The business of monitoring prisoners who have been handed over by ISAF is the responsibility of individual nations," said Nicholas Lunt, NATO’s civilian spokesman in the Afghan capital of Kabul.
The other countries that have agreements with Afghanistan are Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and United Kingdom, while Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden are working on getting them.
But the Amnesty report says governments should not think that such agreements are sufficient to ensure that a person is transferred "without risk or torture or other ill-treatment."
|
