Toronto: Top-ranking Canadian officials ignored evidence that prisoners handed over to Afghanistan's intelligence service a few years ago were tortured, a former Canadian diplomat in Afghanistan said.
Intelligence officer Richard Colvin testified before a Parliament committee that captives taken by Canadian troops and handed over to the Afghans were subjected to beatings and electric shocks in 2006 and early 2007.
Canada has about 2,800 soldiers in Afghanistan's volatile south.
Colvin said today that Canadian officials knew detainees faced a high risk of torture for a year and a half but continued to order military police in Afghanistan to hand over detainees to the Afghani National Directorate of Security.
Colvin said he sent several reports to senior military and government officials, which he said were ignored. He said that former Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada's top military commander and main spokesman for the war in Afghanistan, knew detainees faced torture.
Several Conservative lawmakers' dismissed Colvin's testimony. Lawmaker Laurie Hawn said Colvin provided no "firsthand" proof of torture, despite having seen bruises and other marks of abuse on the prisoners he interviewed.
"It's all second hand," Hawn said. "I really have to question whether this is credible."
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 16:04