The failure to account for prisoners may mean nothing.
It may be simply bad record and communication skills. It may mean the detainees were released quietly and no one wanted to admit it.
Or it may mean they were tortured, killed and then dumped in a pit.
The trouble is we don't have a clue.
Canada has an honourable task in Afghanistan -- the Taliban are anti-women, anti-gay, anti-just-about-everyone. But the honour of our role (and it is our role because the Forces act for and represent Canada) is besmirched by the ambiguity of what is happening. It may be inconvenient but answers must be sought and obtained.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/afghans-violating-detainee-transfer-agreement/article1399050/
An unknown number of Taliban insurgents captured by Canadians and turned over to Afghanistan's secret police are unaccounted for – a serious violation of the Harper government's “improved” detainee-transfer agreement and one that may endanger Canadian soldiers.
The latest detainee-transfer problem to emerge also threatens to undermine Prime Minister Stephen Harper's assertion that “two, three, four years ago” his government fixed the problems that put Canada at risk of violating the Geneva Conventions by transferring detainees into torture.
“This issue has long since been dealt with,” Mr. Harper said last week.
But a few days earlier, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon had quietly acknowledged that an unspecified number of transferred detainees can't be accounted for because Afghan security forces have failed to keep Canada informed of their fates.
2 comments:
Clearly dragging the Afghan nation out of the 14th century will not happen over night.
Bet Libs are sorry now, Canada didn't go to Iraq,
they could have been blaming Harper for Sadam Hussien's torturing of his people too.
Jim, it's a bad sign when Wilson puts in an appearance. Your drains might be backing up.
Of course they can't account for detainees handed over. Most of the Taliban have bribed their way straight back out. In a country second only to Somalia for corruption, why would we expect anything better from Afghanistan's prison system?
These guys are as bent as a cheap nail. We know it. We've always known it. Yet, for reasons I can't understand, we've perpetuated the charade that we can trust these people, their leaders and their institutions.
The Taliban are anti-women and anti-gay. The locals (our side) are anti-woman but a little gay is okay when it comes to ass-raping boys.
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