[Bloquez l'empire!] Rabble: Court challenge to torture in Afghanistan

[Stefan Christoff]

Rabble: Court challenge to torture in Afghanistan

An interview with Alex Neve, the Secretary General of Amnesty International in 
Canada

> by Stefan Christoff
November 19, 2007

http://rabble.ca/rabble_interview.shtml?x=64463

In Canada, Amnesty International has filed a landmark lawsuit directed at the 
Canadian government, on the basis that Canada is violating the constitution by 
handing over prisoners to Afghan authorities in the context of NATO military 
operations in the country and accusations of widespread torture in Afghan 
prisons.

Human rights organizations in Canada, including Amnesty International and the 
British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, have sued the government in the 
context of widespread media reports that prisoners captured by Canadian forces 
were facing torture in Afghan prisons.

Last week a major decision was released by Canada's Federal Court, which ruled 
the lawsuit filed concerning torture in Afghanistan has grounds on which to 
move forward despite major legal maneuvers from government legal 
representatives to have the legal challenge thrown out of court.

Currently Canada maintains over 2500 troops in Afghanistan, mainly in the 
southern province of Kandahar, in a military mission that the majority of 
people in Canada don't support, according to repeated opinion polls. Alex Neve, 
the Secretary General of Amnesty International in Canada, comments on the 
current Federal Court case and answers questions from Stefan Christoff...


Alex Neve: Amnesty International has had long standing concerns with the 
approach that Canada has been taking to handling prisoners apprehended by 
Canadian forces in the context of conflict in Afghanistan. Canada has been 
deployed in Afghanistan since early 2002 and since then Canada has been taking 
prisoners.

As a human rights organization we want to ensure that Canada is treating those 
prisoners in a way that is completely consistent with international human 
rights standards. Initially Canada decided that they would hand all prisoners 
over to U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Amnesty raised concerns on this matter 
given that there are many concerns related to U.S. practices in Afghanistan, 
including the fact that many of those prisoners were going to end up being held 
in Guantanamo Bay.

Amnesty asked Canada to change and revise that practice. After several years 
the government finally decided to do so, but rather than taking the 
responsibility of taking the prisoners onto their own shoulders, they decided 
to turn to another country, this time Afghanistan itself and since the end of 
2005 Canada's practice has been to hand the prisoners to Afghan authorities.

Our concern is that in Afghan prisons torture is rampant and systematic, in 
which context in our view it's very likely that a good number of those who are 
transferred from Canadian custody into the Afghan prison system will therefore 
end up being tortured. If the risk of torture is a real one, which Amnesty 
believes it is, it's incumbent upon Canada and it's actually a matter of 
international legal obligation not to hand the prisoners over and to instead 
adopt some other approach, some other way of keeping those prisoners in custody 
that corresponds with international law.

Stefan Christoff: Can you address the current legal challenge that Amnesty has 
launched in Canada, and explain Amnesty's role and specifically the Federal 
Court decision that was made this past week?

Neve: Amnesty tried repeatedly to have this matter addressed through political 
channels, we repeatedly brought our concerns to the attention of the Minister 
of National Defense in particular, asking that Canada adopt a new approach, a 
new strategy and those requests fell on deaf ears. The government refused to 
revise its policy or practice in any way and in the end Amnesty felt that there 
was no other option but to turn to the courts for a remedy.

Amnesty joined up with the British Colombia Civil Liberties Association, which 
shared our concerns, and we launched a lawsuit in February of this year in 
which we are seeking a Federal Court order that the practice of handing 
prisoners over to Afghan authorities cease.

The Canadian government is fighting vigorously against our lawsuit and earlier 
last month we were in court responding to a government application to try to 
have our lawsuit summarily dismissed at the outset as being groundless. The 
government threw every possible argument they could at the court in what really 
seemed like a desperate effort to try to have the lawsuit thrown out of court 
before it receives a full hearing.

On Monday [November 5], more quickly than expected, the Federal Court decision 
on that particular application came out and the government's application was 
unequivocally rejected on every count. It's a very strong judgment that 
underscores that the issues we have brought forward are important issues that 
are perfectly appropriate for a court to be looking at. Issues that are far 
from groundless and do involve very critical human rights concerns and on that 
basis the Federal Court has ruled that the case can go ahead and we look 
forward to a full hearing being set in the next two to three months, we hope.

Christoff: Could you explain the details within the reports, the information 
that Amnesty International has received from the ground in Afghanistan 
regarding the situation of Afghan prisoners. Earlier this year there was a 
breaking story that was published in the Globe and Mail, written by Graeme 
Smith, detailing accounts of torture. Can you talk about the information that 
you have received that lead you to take action on this issue?

Neve: Sadly there is nothing new about the proposition that torture is 
systematic and widespread in Afghanistan. This is not something that has 
suddenly emerged since the 2001 war and the new government; it is a 
long-standing concern and reality in the Afghan prison system, an issue that 
Amnesty International has documented and reported on publicly for many, many 
years.

The particular concerns as to what happens to battle field prisoners who end up 
in Afghan prisons is a new issue. It's been very difficult to get clear 
information as to what is happening to those prisoners. From a Canadian 
perspective the government for instance refuses to identify who those prisoners 
are, refuses to give their names or any details. Also Canada refuses to allow 
them to have any access to lawyers, which makes it very difficult to do any 
specific research.

Amnesty very much welcomed the great work that the Globe and Mail was able to 
do in terms of getting access to some of the prisoners after they had been 
released from Afghan prisons. In the course of that work the Globe and Mail 
documented some very serious and disturbing allegations of torture. Now, they 
haven't been proven but they are very detailed allegations that are certainly 
credible and consistent with other information that is available to us with 
regard to the practice of torture in Afghanistan and therefore is something 
that the government should be taking very seriously.

Sadly instead, at every turn, from responding to questions in the House of 
Commons, or the kinds of arguments that the government lawyers have been 
advancing in court, instead the line that has been taken has been to try to 
diminish and dismiss out of hand these allegations because they come from 
"Taliban fighters" and therefore aren't worthy of consideration. Well, when it 
comes to torture it doesn't matter if you are a Taliban fighter or a 
humanitarian worker, you should not be tortured and allegations made that you 
have been tortured should be fairly and impartially investigated and that's 
where Canada is falling short.

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