3 Afghanistan Detainees Have Disappeared

General Rick Hillier should be relieved of his command and defence minister O'Connor should be fired.

WASHINGTON — The three detainees at the heart of multiple probes into allegations of abuse by Canadian soldiers have disappeared while in Afghan custody, a seemingly grave breach of the Canada-Afghan pact on detainee treatment, The Globe and Mail has learned.

That poses significant challenges for the criminal probe and raises new doubts about government assurances that all detainees are properly treated and accounted for.
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The December, 2005 deal signed by General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff, stipulates that detainees won't face capital punishment after Canadian troops hand them over to Afghan authorities. Among other things, it requires that “accurate written records accounting for all detainees” be kept by both Canada and Afghanistan.

“Nothing in the agreement prevents Canada from determining the fate of prisoners so there is no need to make any change in the agreement,” Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said last spring when it was being compared to the Dutch model.

Mr. O'Connor has said repeatedly that a provision in the agreement makes the International Committee of the Red Cross responsible for ensuring that detainees are humanely treated and properly accounted for. “If there is something wrong with their treatment, the Red Cross or Red Crescent would inform us and we would take action,” the minister said.

Yet nothing in the actual agreement seems to oblige the ICRC to report back to Canada, even if ICRC monitors were aware that detainees were going missing — or worse — in Afghan hands.

Possible explanations for their disappearance run the gamut from inept prison record-keeping by Afghan guards to undocumented release — commonplace in Afghanistan and often accompanied by payment of bribes — to torture or even killing, a fate repeatedly documented by numerous human-rights groups.

As I wrote here on Thursday, the fact that Hillier signed the original agreement with the Afghan government was highly unusual. On top of that, it isn't legally binding and was followed up only this past week by another agreement signed in secret with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission to provide more oversight for detainees who are transferred into the hands of the Afghans.

What will happen now to the 4 probes into the treatment of these disappeared detainees?

O'Connor has lied about this entire affair and Hillier took duties upon himself that he shouldn't have had and look where we are now. Hillier has been whining about how insulted he is about being called a political prop. Well, in this instance, he certainly made himself one (again) by signing an agreement with the Afghan government that should have been handled by foreign affairs or at least the ministry of defence.

He and O'Connor are responsible for the fate of these detainees because they refused to have an agreement in place to fully protect their rights. It's too late now to feign concern or remorse. They need to be held accountable.

Nor is it clear whether Mr. O'Conner [sic] was ever told by the ICRC that it couldn't account for detainees turned over to Afghan police. Last month he told the Commons, “I can assure this House that at no time was I aware of any abuse of prisoners.”
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...all of the probes — including the NIS criminal investigation and the board of inquiry ordered by Gen. Hillier to examine detainee handling — were launched after The Globe published the allegations of abuse. Prior to that, Canadian Forces spokespeople had insisted that “appropriate force” was used on the detainees and no investigations were needed.

O'Connor didn't know about the abuse? Bull. The buck stops with him. And Hillier. They'd better hope those detainees are still alive.