I

KABUL .GR -C4R

From: KABUL -GR -C4R

Sent: April 23, 2007 12:27 PM
To: PROUDFOOT Douglas Scott -FTAG -C4; KABUL -HOM -C4R
Cc: MULRONEY David -DMA -C4; BUCK Kerry -FTAG -C4; SWORDS Colleen -IFM -C4;
POUPART Isabelle -IDR -C4; LAPORTE Eric -IDR -C4; ANDERSON Cory -FTAG -C4;
KANDH-C4R
Subject: RE: Detainees: Urgent Demarche

Importance: High

SECRET

I just spoke to Ahmad Zia Langari, one of the (nine) commissioners at the Afghan Independent Human Rights
Commission (AIHRC) and delivered the five bullets below, as well as the supplemental, sixth bullet ("Should the AIHRC
indicate they have reports of abuse, why have such reports not been communicated to GoC as per the arrangement?").

Langari said that the AIHRC has faced problems of access to NDS facilities. As a result, the commission is unable to
monitor the condition of detainees, as per their agreements with the Canadians, Dutch and others. Langari said that Dr.
Sima Samar, the AIHRC chair, raised this issue about 9 days ago with President Karzai. The president subsequently set
up a meeting between Dr. Samar and NDS chair Amrullah Saleh . However, according to Langari, the access problem has
still not gone away.

Separately, the issue was raised yesterday at the Human Rights Forum, which Catherine attended. The deputy AIHRC
chair, Ahmad Fahim Hakim, reported that, as follow up to the Samar-Saleh meeting, he met with the Legal Advisor of NDS
to request enhanced access to NDS facilities . However, if this does not result in improved access, AIHRC may ask
Canada, Netherlands, UK and others jointly to demarche NDS.

Finally, I have had a request in since April 17 to meet with Saleh on i) general detainee-handling issues and ii) Glyn Berry.
Saleh was away but returned to Kabul today. We are still awaiting confirmation of the appOintment.

Colvinl charge

-Original Message-
From: PROUDFOOT Douglas Scott -FTAG -C4
Sent: April 23, 200711 :14 AM
To: KABUL -GR -C4R; KABUL -HOM -C4R
Cc: MULRONEY David -DMA -C4; BUCK Kerry -FTAG -C4; SWORDS Colleen -IFM -C4; POUPART Isabelle -IDR -C4; LAPORTE Eric
-I DR -C4; ANDERSON Cory -FTAG -C4; KANDH -C4R
Subject: Detainees: Urgent Demarche

SECRET

Globe & Mail articles of today re: detainees inserted below. As discussed, grateful you make formal
demarche with the authorities and the Human Rights Commission

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Globe And Mail articles

All of <Canada>'s assurances have proven false on the detention of prisoners handed over to the Afghan
authorities. The prisoners appear to have been tortured, and <Canada> is hardly in a position to claim it did
not know what was going on. At best, it tried not to know; at worst, it knew and said nothing.

Among those who gave assurances that the prisoners were properly treated (or who rejected claims of
prisoner abuse) are Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and
Brigadier-General David Fraser. The name on <Canada>'s detainee agreement with the Mghans, signed in
December, 2005, is Gen. Rick Hillier, <Canada>'s Chief of Defence Staff. With senior ministers in the
<Canadian> government and the heads of the military staking their credibility on the treatment of detainees,
<Canada> might have been expected to inquire into whether their assurances would hold up to scrutiny. If
The Globe and Mail's Graeme Smith could find out about a pattern of extreme abuse, including the use of
electrical currents, boiling water and beatings with cables, it defies belief that <Canada> could not.

For a country that just conducted a painful self-examination, lasting nearly three years, into how
<Canadian> citizen Maher Arar wound up in a Syrian torture cell (where he was beaten with cables), this is
shattering news. <Canada> can not, after all that, claim merely to be playing by the rules of a tough part of
the world. That would be naked hypocrisy.

It is still government policy -- or should be -- that the torturers on our side are no more justifiable than
anyone else's. This country is a signatory to the <United> <Nations> Convention Against Torture, which
forbids returning people to another state where there are substantial grounds to believe they will be tortured.
There is a practical reason, too, for not being complicit in torture; such complicity may put <Canadians> at
higher risk of being tortured if they fall into the enemy's control.

The first job for the <Canadian> government now must be to stop all transfers of prisoners to Mghan
authorities immediately until a new process can be developed, in agreement with <Afghanistan>, to provide
a high level of confidence that they will not be tortured when handed over to local authorities. At the same
time, <Canada> needs to ensure that all current detainees turned over by <Canada> are safe from abuse. The
Netherlands has a strict agreement with the Afghans that allows its diplomats and military officials access to
any prisoners. It has never been clear why <Canada> has not obtained a similar agreement.

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