'It was my No. 1 priority, but my bosses had other priorities, too'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 18, 2010 at 4:28 PM - 4 Comments

As the Military Police Complaints Commission hearings continue, perhaps as many questions are raised as are answered.

Former diplomat Nicholas Gosselin visited Afghan detention facilities at least 38 times, but conducted only a handful of interviews with prisoners in the months after a bombshell allegation that a Canadian-captured detainee had been beaten with electrical cables. The revelation stunned both the inquiry chair and the human-rights group that prompted the continuing torture inquiry.

Gosselin told a Military Police Complaints Commission inquiry Tuesday that there often wasn’t time to get in to a question-and-answer session with inmates of either the Afghan intelligence jail, or the notorious Sarpoza prison.

“It wasn’t that there wasn’t a will,” said Gosselin, whose job at the Kandahar provincial reconstruction base included monitoring prisoners. “It was my No. 1 priority, but my bosses had other priorities, too.”

The Colvin encyclopedia

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, December 6, 2009 at 1:31 PM - 25 Comments

A collection of documents, testimony and news reports related to Richard Colvin and Canada’s handling of Afghan detainees. The Colvin encyclopedia is updated as events warrant.

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'The Canadians saw with their own eyes'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 23, 2009 at 1:04 PM - 16 Comments

A former Afghan prison warden talks to Canwest.

Some Taliban prisoners who were transferred two or three years ago to Sarpoza Prison by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security bore signs that they had been tortured, the former warden told Canwest News Service on Monday. But Canadian soldiers went to great lengths to try to ensure that prisoners who they had detained and handed over to the NDS were not abused, said Abdul Qadar Khan Popal.

“At the time, John, from the Canadian side, was looking after prisoners that were in NDS custody and was always complaining to the NDS because the prisoners had told him they were tortured,” Popal said. “He tried to bring them out of NDS custody and into Sarpoza as quickly as he could because he understood the situation.

“The Canadians saw with their own eyes and asked the prisoners if they had any complaints. The Canadians minded very strongly when the prisoners complained and advised us not to mistreat anyone. The explained to us about human rights and told us how to treat prisoners, especially political ones.”

Only a dozen

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 2:35 AM - 30 Comments

Canwest talks to the current warden of Sarpoza prison in Afghanistan.

Prisoners were tortured at Sarpoza Prison in Afghanistan, but not in nearly the numbers alleged this past week by a Canadian diplomat, the prison’s chief warden has told Canwest News Service.

“Yes, there was torture and people were certainly beaten,” chief warden Col. Abdullah Bawar said Saturday during an interview conducted inside the prison’s heavily guarded walls. “Hands and legs would be tied and they would be beaten with cables. I even remember one man who broke his leg from a beating.”

Although his timeline was a bit fuzzy as to when such abuses stopped, Bawar estimated that “around 100 prisoners” from a population of about 1,100 had been physically abused during 2006 and 2007, which he referred to as “this dark period.” The information Bawar offered makes it nearly impossible to say precisely how many — if any — of the abused prisoners would have been handed over by Canadian troops. A rough estimate suggests it may have only been as many as a dozen.

In a separate analysis, David Pugliese estimates Canada may have turned over nearly 600 detainees. Former diplomat Harry Sterling says the Colvin paper trail should be easy to follow. And CBC posts the report that, if I’m not mistaken, momentarily brought a halt to transfers in November 2007.

BTC: More supportive than thou

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 16, 2008 at 5:50 PM - 0 Comments

“The reality is, as I just said, there was a very serious security incident, the Sarpoza prison. We are all aware of that. What that should remind everybody in the chamber of is how dangerous some of the prisoners in that prison indeed are, indeed the danger of the Taliban that the local population and our Canadian Forces have to deal with every day. This should bring that appreciation to every member of the House and we should support Canadian troops.”

That’s the Prime Minister, speaking in the House today about last week’s jail break in Afghanistan.

Here’s the skit This Hour Has 22 Minutes would be doing next week if they hadn’t already done it months ago. Continue…