Afghan police beatings commonplace: military inquiry

OTTAWA - Afghan authorities routinely beat people "in the street and elsewhere" and most Canadian soldiers knew about it, a military board of inquiry has found.

The results of a five-week investigation, released Friday, found troops in Kandahar had lingering concerns about the local police force.

"The practice of corporal punishment being meted out on an apparent whim in the street and elsewhere was common and was observed and commented upon by most Canadian Forces members," the report says.

The findings came in a report into a June 2006 detainee transfer that resulted in a man being beaten by local authorities.

In that incident, Canadian soldiers on patrol stopped a "suspicious" vehicle and pulled aside one of the men inside for a closer look.

The Canadians asked a group of Afghan police to take the man to their headquarters in Zhari district for further questioning.

A now-retired warrant officer told the board a local interpreter working for the Canadians had a funny feeling about what the Afghan cops might do to the captive.

The soldier said the Afghan police "became very excited" around the prisoner and the interpreter "had a 'feeling' that something might not be right."

A commander, who wasn't at the scene, later told the board that particular unit of Afghan cops had "recently suffered casualties in the region, including the mutilation of some of their fallen by the Taliban."

The Canadians were told to take photos of the captive before turning him over to the Afghans. This was done as the Canadians' way of "impressing upon ANP No 5 that (blank) was expected to arrive at (blank) unchanged from his present condition," the report says.

"He wanted to have a record of (blank) appearance just in case something untoward happened."

The report says the section commander never saw the Afghan police abusing detainees, though he had heard rumours to that effect.

Another soldier offered this blunt assessment of the Afghan police unit: "Oh yes, those wing nuts. They were (blank's) little pet unit. They were garbage. We had a lot of run-ins with them."

The Canadians saw the Afghan cops start to beat their captive as their truck sped away. They chased down the truck and took back the prisoner. He was treated for minor scrapes and bruises and turned over to another group of Afghan police.

The board said the Canadian soldiers did nothing wrong by not reporting the incident to superiors because they were confused by the policy in place.

The probe made no recommendations because it found the military now has a clearly defined process of documenting and reporting detainees.

Rear-Admiral Paul Maddison said in Ottawa the board looked at some 500 pages and spoke to 30 witnesses before preparing its report.

But more than a month's worth of key documents were missing, which the board said is of "very significant concern."

The missing records span the period May 13 to June 17, 2006. They include phone, radio and chat logs, war diaries, and daily and weekly situation and patrol reports.

"Concerted and aggressive efforts to locate these records were also made in theatre and with other potential unit or institutional holdings, to no avail," the report says.

The NDP's defence critic says the missing material undermines credibility.

"Sounds like the Nixon tapes, the missing portions of these missing tapes. Sometimes the missing things are the most important," Jack Harris said.

"It certainly hurts the credibility of the whole report. It does certainly raise lots of questions in suspicious minds."

The board also found witnesses' memories were "vague" and some couldn't remember anything at all.

Maddison, who headed the board of inquiry, said the lost records would only confirm what the probe had already concluded.

"Those logs would be useful in confirming what we have already determined through other testimonial and documentary evidence," he said.

"We know certain reports were made via tactical radio at certain times. But what we weren't able to absolutely confirm through a written log is when, by who and where."

A report on the June 2006 incident was apparently uncovered only in December, leaving egg on the face of the country's top military commander.

Gen. Walt Natynczyk, chief of the defence staff, told the House of Commons defence committee that Canadian troops had questioned the suspected insurgent, but never detained him.

But Natynczyk corrected himself a day later, saying Canadian troops did indeed capture the man and gave him to Afghan police before taking him back into custody when they saw him being beaten.

Natynczyk then ordered an investigation to determine why the information did not get to him or Rick Hillier, the general who served before him.

Opposition parties say the episode shows the governing Conservatives had credible proof of torture and knew of the dangers of transferring prisoners as far back as 2006.

The Tories insist they had no solid evidence of Canadian-captured prisoners being abused by the Afghans before November 2007.

Diplomat Richard Colvin told a Commons committee last fall that Canadian officials were warned about possible torture in 2006, but took little or no action to halt the transfer of prisoners to Afghan authorities.

Colvin said all prisoners turned over by Canadian troops to the Afghans were probably then abused by their captors.

Knowingly transferring a prisoner into a situation where they may face a risk of torture is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime.

A Commons committee and the quasi-judicial Military Police Complaints Commission have been looking into the issue of alleged detainee abuse for months.