Canada hides Afghan torture, killings

The Canadian government knew from its own officials that prisoners held by Afghan security forces faced the possibility of torture, abuse and extrajudicial killing. But the government has eradicated every single reference to torture and abuse in prison from a heavily blacked-out version of a report prepared by Canadian diplomats in Kabul and released under an access to information request. Initially, the government denied the existence of the report, responding in writing that "no such report on human rights performance in other countries exists." After complaints to the Access to Information Commissioner, it released a heavily edited version this week. Among the sentences blacked out by the Foreign Affairs Department in the report's summary is "Extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common," according to full passages of the report. The Foreign Affairs report, titled "Afghanistan-2006; Good Governance, Democratic Development and Human Rights," was marked "CEO," for Canadian Eyes Only. It seems to remove any last vestige of doubt that the senior officials and ministers knew that torture and abuse were rife in Afghan jails. The report leaves untouched many paragraphs such as those beginning "one positive development" or "there are some bright spots." But heavy dark blocks obliterate sentences such as "the overall human rights situation in Afghanistan deteriorated in 2006." It's not clear why such internationally agreed and obvious observations are blacked out of the Canadian report. No national security issues seem involved, nor are there personal privacy issues, reasons often cited for excising information. A comparison of the full text with the edited version shows a consistent pattern of excising negative findings or observations from the report with positive ones left in. There was no explanation for blacking out observations such as "military, intelligence and police forces have been accused of involvement in arbitrary arrest, kidnapping extortion, torture and extrajudicial killing." The findings echo other, and widely publicized, reports by Louise Arbour, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, the US State Department, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and various international human-rights groups. The report by Canada's own diplomats seems to undermine the government's claims that it was unaware of the fate likely faced by detainees handed over by Canadian troops to Afghan security forces. The report raises a red flag for any government bound by the Geneva Conventions and responsible for safeguarding transferred detainees from torture and abuse. It makes repeated dark references to the reputation and performance of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS), or intelligence police. Most prisoners captured by Canadian troops are now turned over to the widely feared NDS, which is considered tougher but perhaps less corrupt that the Afghan National Police. "Allegations of torture and arbitrary detention by NDS officials have also been reported," the full text of the report says. Another portion that is blacked out reads "widespread allegations of corruption and human-rights violations exist with respect to the Afghanistan National Police and Ministry of Interior." In March, when the US State Department issued its annual report, it made clear that Afghan prisons, where Canada consigns detainees captured by its troops, were rife with torture, abuse and corruption. The report echoed equally grim assessments issued earlier by the United Nations and Afghanistan's own independent Human Rights Commission. "Security and factional forces committed extrajudicial killings and torture," the US report said. The most recent report by Arbour found: "The NDS, responsible for both civil and military intelligence, operates in relative secrecy without adequate judicial oversight and there have been reports of prolonged detention without trial, extortion, torture and systematic due process violations."