All three of the independent military commands at that point (in 2007) — the Canadian, Dutch and British — knew that under international law they were responsible for the well being of all Afghans they picked up, even after they were handed over to Afghan prisons and interrogation centres.The Dutch were concerned enough to report immediately any handover to the local Red Cross officials. Britain acted within 24 hours.
But Canada?
When Canadian soldiers brought in the usually hooded and tightly bound detainee, our military police on the spot would first inform the colonels and generals in the Kandahar mission control centre.
But instead of alerting the Red Cross right away, like the Dutch and British, these commanders, following orders, sent the information to CEFCOM, the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command in Ottawa.
This information would then be passed over to Defence Headquarters and to Foreign Affairs.
Instead of CEFCOM sending word back to Kandahar to immediately engage local Red Cross officials, the file instead was forwarded to the Canadian Embassy in Geneva.
Only then did Canada inform the International Red Cross, suggesting that it check up on some Afghan civilians our troops had detained and handed over to Afghan interrogators. (Brian Stewart, CBC News)
I'm trying to archive my posts, making them easier to access, so will use this page to link stories related to the Afghan Detainee issue in 2007. By laying everything out chronologically, we can see that this government has been spinning a yarn for several years. They lied to us then and they're lying to us now.
Afghan Detainee Stories in 2007
Related Postings on Afghanistan in 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment