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<h2><b>Amnesty slams Canada over Afghan
detainees</b></h2><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070221.wamnesty21/BNStory/National/home" eudora="autourl">
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070221.wamnesty21/BNStory/National/home<br>
<br>
</a>PAUL KORING <br><br>
Globe and Mail Update<br><br>
Canada's practice of turning detainees over to Afghan security forces,
widely accused of torture and abuse, violates international law and the
Charter of Rights, Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil
Liberties Association say.<br><br>
The two groups will Wednesday file an application in Federal Court in
Ottawa seeking judicial review of the military's controversial policy.
Named as respondents in the action are Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor,
General Rick Hillier, Canada's Chief of the Defence Staff, and
Attorney-General Robert Nicholson.<br><br>
The legal action will be announced today by Alex Neve, Amnesty
International Canada's Secretary-General, and Shirley Heafey, a B.C.
Civil Liberties Association board member.<br><br>
“There's a very strong chance of it winding up in the Supreme Court,”
said Paul Champ, who is acting on behalf of Amnesty and the
BCCLA.<br><br>
The case will raise significant constitutional issues, including whether
Canadian soldiers fighting abroad are legally bound by the Geneva
Conventions even if generals insist that “enemy combatants” aren't
entitled to Geneva rights, and whether Charter guarantees of due process
extend to captives apprehended on battlefields halfway around the
world.<br><br>
“They are turning those people over to states that are likely to
torture,” Mr. Champ said yesterday.<br><br>
Under a deal Gen. Hillier and Afghanistan's Defence Minister signed in
December, 2005, all terrorism suspects and Taliban fighters that Canadian
Forces capture in Afghanistan are turned over to the Afghan police or
military. Canada informs the International Committee of the Red Cross
about the handover, but unlike other NATO countries in Afghanistan,
notably Britain and the Netherlands, makes no effort to check on the
condition of detainees.<br><br>
“The current Canada-Afghanistan Detainee Agreement does not provide
adequate safeguards to ensure that detainees will not be tortured by
Afghan forces,” Amnesty and the BCCLA said yesterday.<br><br>
Canada's treatment of captives is already under scrutiny. Last month,
allegations of detainee abuse arose after the discovery that several
Afghans suffered an odd pattern of injuries in the custody of Canadian
soldiers in April. <br><br>
A criminal investigation, a board of inquiry ordered by Gen. Hillier, and
a probe by the independent Military Police Complaints Commission were all
launched this month.<br><br>
Now, the human-rights groups want Canada's courts to review the legality
of turning detainees over to a country with a notorious record of torture
and abuse, and a nascent government whose remit often extends only
tentatively beyond the capital Kabul.<br><br>
Handing detainees over to Afghan security forces violates “the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the National Defence Act and Canada's
international obligations amongst others under the Geneva Conventions and
the Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment,” Amnesty and the BCCLA said.<br><br>
Gen. Hillier has called the policy part of helping Afghanistan rebuild
itself as a nation.<br><br>
What happens to detainees once they are in Afghan hands remains largely
unknown. But the murky network of Afghan jails where some prisoners
disappear, others are released after payment of bribes and only a few
seem to be charged and tried has been harshly criticized.<br><br>
The most recent assessment of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Louise Arbour, said there were “reports of prolonged detention without
trial, extortion, torture, and systematic due process
violations.”<br><br>
The U.S. State Department annual report was similarly harsh.<br><br>
“Afghanistan's human-rights record remained poor. There continued to be
instances in which security and factional forces committed extrajudicial
killings and torture,” it said.<br><br>
Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, in its own report last
year, concluded, “The incidence of torture on detained or imprisoned
persons was still occurring throughout the past year,” albeit at a
declining rate.<br><br>
The filing today will start a 30-day clock running. <br><br>
By then, Amnesty and the BCCLA must file evidence buttressing their
claim. <br><br>
Then the government has 30 days to file its evidence. <br><br>
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