I think that a War Crimes trial is in order for Messrs Chretien and Martin... I wonder if the US would let us put chretien in a cell with Lord Black?
Adrian MacNair: Inquiry must get to bottom of Liberal involvement in war crimes
Posted: January 14, 2010, 1:40 PM by NP Editor
Full Comment, Canadian politics, Adrian MacNair
Far be it from me to pose as an expert on an issue as confusing as the secretive and murky conditions surrounding how detainees in Afghanistan have been handled in the care of Canada’s military. But recent information has come to light that reveals that the former Liberal government was aware of systemic abuse and torture in Afghan prisons, even though the Liberal Party has been hammering on the Harper government over an alleged “cover-up”. I shouldn’t really say “recent information”, since most of this information has been what you might call, “hiding in plain sight”, in the form of old news articles on the internet.
From 2002 to 2005, the Canadian protocol for Afghan detainees suspected of Taliban ties was to hand them over to U.S. military authorities. The Liberal government at the time was convinced that the treatment of detainees in American custody would be humane, but that soon changed when abuse allegations at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq surfaced.
What we do know is that Canadian diplomats who were stationed in Kabul repeatedly warned the former Chretien and Martin Liberal governments in 2003, 2004, and 2005 that torture was commonplace in Afghan prisons. Despite these warnings, the Martin government signed an agreement with the Karzai government in December of 2005 to hand over all Canadian-captured prisoners to Afghan authorities, according to official documents by Foreign Affairs.
John McCallum, who was defence minister for the Chretien government in 2002-2003, said in the LaPresse story that he never saw the Foreign Affairs’ documents. His colleague Bill Graham was Foreign Affairs minister at the time, and he became defence minister in June of 2004, and still held that position when Canada signed the agreement with the Karzai government. (Note that when Defence Minister Peter MacKay claimed not to have seen Richard Colvin's warnings, he was fervently mocked by Liberals, yet McCallum feels no embarrassment about using the same excuse).
In May of 2007, Canwest ran a story about the Afghan detainee deal and the former Liberal government that reveals more than the LaPresse article.
In a May 27, 2005 letter from Mr.Graham to Mr. Martin, the former Prime Minister was told that Canada was going to negotiate an agreement with the Afghan government that would attempt to take into account how detainees would be treated. On the same day, Mr.Graham authorized the Canadian Forces to make arrangements with Afghan authorities on detainee transfers.
The approach was approved by June 10, 2005 by Prime Minister Paul Martin according to government documents. It also exonerated the brief assertion that General Rick Hillier, Chief of Defence Staff, acted without governmental authority when he signed the detainee deal:
[Bill] Graham’s May 2005 letter states that the government wanted an agreement under which Afghan detainees transferred by Canada would “be afforded treatment consistent with the standards set out in the Third Geneva Convention, regardless of the legal status of those detainees.”
The letter also says that Canadians would pass information on detainees to the International Committee of the Red Cross, “which has the mandate and resources to track Prisoners of War and detainees captured during armed conflict.” However, it does not clarify whether the ICRC would report back to Canada on the condition of the detainees.
This also backs up statements made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in May of 2007 in which he insisted that the military could not have signed a bilateral agreement on the treatment of detainees without approval from the Liberal ministers.
Macleans magazine followed up with an article the next day, on May 3, 2007, reiterating that the Martin government knew about the details of any Afghan detainee agreement six months before that deal was finalized.
When the detainee abuse rumours hit the media in 2007, General Rick Hillier stated:
“Obviously we’d reassess that as allegations come out, that perhaps that [deal] was not sufficient.”
So while the Liberal government made an attempt to have prisoners treated “with the standards set out in the Third Geneva Convention”, there were obvious failures in the execution. Particularly disturbing is that the followup on the treatment of detainees appears to have failed despite, as noted at the Macleans link, Bill Graham’s extensive credentials in Foreign Affairs and Law.
The agreement signed with Afghan prison authorities in December of 2005, obviously failed to meet the standards set out in the protocol, since diplomat Richard Colvin has said he began raising the issues of “serious, imminent and alarming” problems in May of 2006. The Conservative government then overhauled prisoner transfer agreement with the Afghan government, negotiating a new one that allowed for follow-up visits to ensure detainees weren’t tortured. The International Red Cross issued a stinging rebuke of Richard Colvin in late November, for asserting that the organization did not engage in the proper diligence and followup on the treatment of detainees.
As for the actual numbers, documents released when the BC Civil Liberties Association and Amnesty International took the federal government to court, revealed that the total number of detainees Canadian Forces held between 2002 and 2006 was only 40.
Any government inquest that goes forward now, two and a half years removed from the time when the detainee transfer agreement was overhauled to prevent inherent flaws in the December, 2005, agreement, should thoroughly investigate the involvement of the former Liberal government and ministers, such as Bill Graham and John McCallum. When former Liberal cabinet ministers like John McCallum imply the Conservative government is complicit in “war crimes”, we should ensure that the government actually responsible for the alleged crimes are held responsible.
National Post
Adrian MacNair is a Vancouver-based writer and blogger. Read more here.
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