Canada’s top general now says Canada did have evidence that an Afghan detainee was tortured

Canadian general says military knew of abuse risk

TORONTO — Canada’s top general acknowledged Wednesday there is evidence a prisoner captured by the military in 2006 and handed over to Afghan authorities was abused.

Gen. Walt Natynczyk’s disclosure contradicts Defense Minister Peter MacKay’s repeated insistence that not a single case of torture of detainees captured by Canadian troops could be proven.

The revelation raises questions about whether Canada violated international law by continuing to transfer prisoners to Afghan custody after it had evidence of abuse.

Opposition parties stepped up calls for MacKay’s resignation and are demanding a public inquiry.

Natynczyk, the country’s chief of defense staff, called a news conference to correct information he gave a day earlier about a detainee who was beaten by Afghan police. The general told a Parliament committee Tuesday that Canadian troops had questioned the man in June 2006, but never detained him.

But Natynczyk now says Canadian troops did indeed capture the man and handed him over to Afghan police before taking him back into custody when they saw him being beaten.

Natynczyk said he has ordered an investigation into why neither he, nor his predecessor, Rick Hillier, saw a platoon commander’s report that detailed the prisoner’s capture.

A senior Canadian diplomat alleged last month that government and military officials ignored evidence that prisoners handed over to Afghanistan’s intelligence service in 2006 and 2007 were tortured.

MacKay has attacked the credibility of former diplomat Richard Colvin’s allegations, saying not a single Taliban prisoner turned over by Canadian forces can be proven to have been abused.

Natynczyk’s revelation contradicts that, but MacKay said Wednesday that “no one ever turned a blind eye.”

Colvin, now an intelligence officer at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, spent 18 months in Afghanistan as senior diplomat during 2006 and 2007. He said that Canadian officials knew detainees faced a high risk of torture for a year and a half but continued to order military police to hand over detainees to the Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security.

Colvin said he sent several reports on the problem to senior military and government officials, which he said were ignored.

Canada has about 2,800 soldiers in the volatile southern Afghan province of Kandahar on a combat mission that is due to end in 2011. Canadian troops first began transferring detainees to Afghan authorities in late 2005.