| Posted May 3, 2007 12:30 PM Report by YayaCanada Government appeal stopped the show in Supreme Court this morning. Below: Members of Canada's military discuss outcome of this morning's scheduled hearing in Supreme Court for Amnesty International's petition for an interim injunction to stop the transfer of detainees by Canadian soldiers into the hands of Afghans, due to reports of inmate mistreatment.  Photo by YayaCanada In essence, the government this morning signed an agreement with the Islamic Government of Afghanistan to the effect that Canada would have unrestricted access while transferred detainees are in custody, Canada would be notified of any changes in circumstances, detention areas would be made available for inspection upon request, and interviews with detainees could be held in private. As a result, the judge deemed the urgency to have passed, and asked that a new date be set should a petition for an injunction against the transfer of detainees proceed. The judge expressed the view that perhaps an injunction would no longer be necessary due to the new developments, and added that such developments would not have occurred without today's petition for an injunction. Lawyers for Amnesty International did not seem to feel that monitoring was a sufficient solution, and they may yet try to stop the transfer of detainees. Below: School children line up for a tour of the Supreme Court building. Their teacher (left) was very interested to find out that her charges had arrived on such an historic and newsworthy day.  Photo by YayaCanada Background:
http://www.amnesty.ca/take_action/actions/canada_afghanistan_detainees.php Canada/Afghanistan: Stop Detainee Transfers Posted: 25 April 2007 GUMBAD, AFGHANISTAN: A suspected Taliban prisoner sits with his hands strapped and guarded by members of 1st Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, after a raid on a compound in Northern Kandahar, 10 May 2006. Ten suspects were subsequently handed over to the Afghan National Police. Taliban militia has released a DVD purporting to show suicide bombers shortly before they carry out attacks and calling for more strikes on US and British coalition troops. Amnesty International is concerned that Canadian forces in Afghanistan continue to transfer detainees to Afghan custody despite persistent reports of torture and other serious human rights violations. After repeated appeals for a voluntary cessation of transfers, AI Canada is currently seeking an injunction in the Federal Court. Detention conditions in Afghanistan remain sub-standard. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, inappropriate shackling, and lack of access to medical care and legal representation are the norm. In southern Afghanistan – where Canadian forces are operating – the National Directorate of Security (NDS) has no effective oversight and is believed to be responsible for arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, torture and deaths in custody. Recent Globe and Mail investigative reports published in April 2007 revealed that at least 30 detainees transferred from Canadian custody to the NDS had been tortured during interrogation. In an April 23, 2007 story, the newspaper portrayed Colonel Saddiqui, the human rights ombudsman for the Kandahar police, as displaying a shocking disregard for the fate detainees: "In these cases, these people need some torture, because without torture they will never say anything." The behaviour of other Afghan security forces receiving transferred detainees is also troubling. In June 2006, a CTV television crew traveling with Canadian troops reportedly recorded ‘radio chatter’ of a soldier saying that Afghan forces were preparing to summarily execute a man caught in a raid. "Either we take him or he gets executed" the soldier reportedly said, although the detainee was later turned over to a different group of Afghans. CF soldiers reportedly intervened in two other occasions in order to save a detainee, and started "taking extra precautions to choose Afghan security forces that will accept prisoners without harming them." TAKE ACTION: Canadian soldiers must never be part of a process that could lead to torture. Please write courteously worded letters to the Minister of Defence calling for Canadian Forces in Afghanistan to stop transferring detainees until there can be genuine measures put in place to ensure that no detainee is subjected to torture and ill-treatment. WRITE TO: The Honorable Gordon O'Connor Minister of National Defence National Defence Headquarters Major-General George R. Pearkes Building Ottawa, ON, K1A 0K2 Canada Fax: + 1 613 995 8189 Email: OConnor.G@parl.gc.ca Salutation: Dear Minister FURTHER BACKGROUND: In December 2005, the Chief of the Defence Staff for Canada, Genenal Hillier, signed an "arrangement" with the Afghan Minister of Defence, Abdul Raheem Wardak, to enable Canadian Forces (CF) to start transferring people they detain in the context of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission to Afghan custody. The previous CF practice of transferring detainees to United States forces led to serious human rights violations in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Amnesty International is concerned that the new arrangement once again fails to protect detainees from torture and other serious human rights violations. Under the December 2005 transfer arrangement, the Canadian Forces retain no powers for direct follow-up on detainees or notification of (or consent for) transfers to third parties. Until recently, the main monitoring body implicated in the arrangement was the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which reports confidentially and only to the actual detaining power, leaving Canada out of the loop once transfers are complete. While the Canadian government has entered into a second agreement with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, it lacks capacity and has reported problems accessing some prisons including the facilities of the National Directorate of Security. Monitoring, however, is only part of the solution. The international community must continue to support the long-term reform of prisons, police, armed forces and legal system in Afghanistan. After years of raising concerns about detainee transfers, in February 2007, AI Canada and the BC Civil Liberties Association applied for a judicial review of the December 2005 Canada-Afghanistan Detainee Agreement on the grounds that it violated both the Canadian Charter of Rights of Freedoms and Canada's international obligations to prevent torture. ******************* http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/War_Terror/2007/04/27/4135439-cp.html Rights groups seeking ban OTTAWA (CP) - As the issue of prisoner abuse in Afghanistan heats to a boil in the political world, human-rights activists are taking the judicial route and will ask the Federal Court next week to bar Canadian soldiers from handing detainees over to Afghan authorities. Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association have filed a suit against the federal government, the minister of defence and the chief of the defence staff. It alleges that prisoners in Afghanistan are routinely tortured in custody and says Canadians should not be transferring them to the Afghan system. Lawyers for the rights groups will be in Federal Court on Thursday asking for an interim order pending a full hearing later in the year, said Alex Neve, Amnesty's secretary-general. "We're obviously hopeful . . . that the court will agree to issue an interim injunction until they actually do hear the full case which, at this point is probably not likely until the fall," he said. "Given that transfers may well be continuing and more torture may be occurring, we obviously didn't want to wait until the fall and thus are turning to the court for some interim relief." The question of abuse of detainees in Afghanistan became a major political issue this week, dominating question period in the Commons. ********************************* http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070412.DETAINEE12/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/ Ottawa silent as time runs out for response on detainees Decision not to counter rights challenge may signal intent to make Charter argument PAUL KORING The government has allowed a court deadline to pass without challenging claims by human-rights groups that its policy of turning detainees over to Afghan security forces exposes them to torture in violation of Canada's obligations under international law and the Charter of Rights. Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association filed an application in Federal Court in Ottawa this year seeking judicial review of the military's controversial policy. The 30-day period for a government response ran out Tuesday. The two groups are now in a position to ask a federal judge to order an end to all detainee transfers. "We could apply for an injunction," Jason Gratl, BCCLA's president, said yesterday. "We haven't decided," he said, adding that he hoped Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor would act. "A voluntary cessation of transfers is the appropriate ethical and moral thing for the government to do," Mr. Gratl said in a telephone interview. "We shouldn't have to force them." Mr. Gratl said he still hoped the explanation for the government's decision not to file counterarguments in court was that "having nothing positive it can say," it has decided to "announce a solution rather than a defence." But there was no hint that the government was about to comply with demands from Amnesty and the BCCLA that the Canadian Forces build a prisoner-of-war camp in Afghanistan to hold battlefield detainees rather than turn them over to Afghan secret police, who have a notorious reputation for torture and extrajudicial killings. Both the Justice Department and the Department of National Defence declined to explain why they allowed the 30-day period to expire without making any response. Tight-lipped silence has characterized the government's handling of the detainees file ever since Mr. O'Connor acknowledged last month that he had misled Parliament by claiming the International Committee of the Red Cross would inform Canada if it found abuse or maltreatment of detainees turned over by Canadian Forces to Afghan police. Mr. O'Conner admitted that the ICRC would not report back to Canada only after the Geneva-based group refuted his claims. The government's decision not to submit anything to counter the claims of the human-rights groups may signal an intent to argue the case on legal grounds -- that the Charter of Rights doesn't apply to Canadian military operations overseas -- rather than dispute whether torture is commonplace in Afghanistan's prisons, legal observers say. "Its pretty hard to refuse the evidence we have put forward that torture is widespread," Alex Neve, Amnesty International Canada's secretary-general, said yesterday. In filing for a judicial review of the legality of Canada's detainee policy, the two groups said: "The current Canada-Afghanistan Detainee Agreement does not provide adequate safeguards to ensure that detainees will not be tortured by Afghan forces." The murky gulag of Afghan prisons, where some detainees disappear and others are quickly freed after bribes are paid -- even Mr. O'Connor has called it a revolving door -- has been harshly criticized. "My guess is that the Crown got cold feet about putting in affidavits, owing to the risk of cross-examination," said Amir Attaran, the University of Ottawa law professor whose evidence that detainees may have been beaten in Canadian custody sparked an ongoing investigation by the Military Police Complaints Commission. "Put it this way: If you were [Canada's Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick] Hillier and had the choice to enter an affidavit that tells your side of the story, but at the risk of a grilling under oath, you might decide against telling your side of the story," Mr. Attaran added. yayacanada Main Page: Afghanistan - What have we gotten into? |