On Tuesday, April 6, 2010, lawyers for Amnesty International Canada and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) will return to hearings before the Military Police Complaints Commission. The Commission has launched an important inquiry to determine what military police officers knew about the torture of prisoners transferred from Canadian to Afghan custody, and what efforts, if any, they made to investigate when it became evident that transferred detainees were being abused.
Senior officials from the Canadian Forces, National Defence and Foreign Affairs have been called to testify before the Commission. The hearings are based on complaints that were filed by Amnesty and the BCCLA in 2007 and 2008.
Since the filing of the complaints, more information about the conditions for these prisoners has been made public. For example, evidence from a report by a Canadian official visiting the Afghanistan National Directorate of Security prison in Kandahar, on 5 November, 2007 noted that implements of torture described by a prisoner were discovered in his cell.
“Information obtained by human rights monitoring groups and the recent testimony of senior diplomat Richard Colvin strongly suggests that Canada’s conduct in Afghanistan is in serious breach of domestic law and its international obligations” says Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty. “The government’s continued secrecy and obstruction has prevented transparency and accountability. The proof of torture in Afghan prisons and the proof that transferred prisoners have been tortured is overwhelming, and it is very disturbing.”
“The role of the military police and the responsibility of the officers in charge of these transfers must be examined,” says Grace Pastine, Litigation Director for the BCCLA. “High-ranking military officials were aware that former Canadian Forces detainees were likely tortured by Afghan authorities, yet they failed to investigate whether any members of the Canadian Forces should be charged for their role in facilitating these crimes. The public has a right to know why there was a failure to investigate these very serious breaches of domestic and international law.” The Canadian military has been handing over captured Afghans to Afghan authorities since late 2005.
The United Nations, foreign governments, international organizations and Afghanistan’s own
independent human rights commission have all documented pervasive and widespread torture in Afghanistan, but the federal government has insisted that the claims were baseless.
The use of torture is absolutely prohibited under Canadian and international law, under all
circumstances. The universal prohibition against torture does not simply mean that the government shouldn’t engage in torture, however. It also means that a government has a duty to prevent the perpetration of torture and to ensure that it is not responsible for delivering individuals to situations in which they would face a serious risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
The federal government has repeatedly attempted to shut down the inquiry. Federal lawyers argued that the MPCC lacks jurisdiction to hear the complaints and have tried to prohibit the MPCC from proceeding. The Commission originally began hearings in June 2009, but the hearings were derailed after the federal government failed to provide documents to the Commission and challenged the Commission’s jurisdiction in Federal Court.
Witnesses who are tentatively scheduled to appear the week of April 6 are Sgt Utton, Capt Bouchard, Capt (ret’d) Naipaul, and Major Bolduc.
The Commission is a quasi-judicial body which was established by Parliament to provide for greater public accountability by the Canadian Forces military police and the chain of command. The Commission is independent of both the Department of National Defense and the Canadian Forces.
The witness hearings will commence on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 9:00 AM at 270 Albert Street, 10th floor, in Ottawa, Ontario and are estimated to continue for six weeks. It is planned that the Commission will hold hearings Monday to Thursday. The sitting will begin each day at 9:00 AM, break at noon, and resume in the afternoon from 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM.
Amnesty and the BCCLA are represented by lawyers Paul Champ, Carmen Cheung, Khalid Elgazzar, and Grace Pastine.
Further information about the work of Amnesty and the BCCLA to prevent the torture of Afghan detainees can be found at http://www.bccla.org/antiterrorissue/afghan_detainee.html
MEDIA CONTACTS
John Tackaberry, Media Relations, Amnesty: 613-744-7667, ext. 236
Grace Pastine, BCCLA Litigation Director: (778) 241-7183, [email protected]
