Red Cross rebukes diplomat over Afghan torture allegations

KABUL, Afghanistan — A senior Red Cross official has criticized a Canadian diplomat for publicly alleging the organization believed Canada handed detainees over to Afghan authorities knowing they would likely be tortured.

“What (Richard) Colvin has said publicly has put us in an awkward situation. What he claims to know should not be put out in a public place,” said Eloi Fillion, deputy director of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan, where it has a staff of 120 foreigners and 1,500 locals.

Colvin, now deputy head of intelligence at the Canadian embassy in Washington, made headlines this month with his allegations that the Canadian government and the military turned a blind eye to widespread torture in Afghan jails.

The senior diplomat said he wrote more than 12 reports while he was posted in Afghanistan, beginning in May 2006, warning of “serious, imminent and alarming” problems about the treatment of detainees following their transfer by Canadian troops.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was aware of the nature of Colvin’s allegations and of the political furor they had caused in Canada, Fillion said. Nevertheless, as a matter of long-standing policy, the Swiss-based organization would not comment on them, he said Sunday.

“What we may or may not have discussed with Canada or with Colvin was confidential,” Fillion said. “This is not specific to Canada or to the situation in Afghanistan. We have privileged access (to detainees) because such information is confidential.

“We do not go public and we do not expect state representatives to go public because this could affect access to detainees and this could then become an issue as regards their well-being. We collect allegations and testimony directly from victims, not from second-hand sources, so we need to have this access. Sometimes we are the only thing between them and the authority.”

But the lawyer and French citizen indirectly cast serious doubt on whether Colvin would have been informed if Red Cross officials had significant concerns that Canadian soldiers or officials had violated international humanitarian laws.

“There is a process,” Fillion said. “In our relationship with Canada or any other state, if there is a suspicion that a state representative has committed or is about to commit a war crime or has not behaved properly in international humanitarian law, we would discuss this with the person or persons concerned and report this to his superiors, taking this up to the highest level that we could.

“As regards Canada, this would be represented to the state through the military as well as to the state at home. Our report would go to the highest person in that country’s hierarchical system with responsibility for international humanitarian law.”

The ICRC would do this “by legal mandate,” he said, because “we are the guardians of international humanitarian conventions.”

Asked if such reports had been sent to Canadian authorities at any time since Canadian combat forces arrived in Kandahar to fight the Taliban in 2006, Fillion declined to comment, citing his organization’s policy.

“We do reserve the right to go public when all other means are exhausted,” he said. “This has not happened in Afghanistan because we have a constructive dialogue with all the relevant parties, including Canada. This constructive relationship is not one-sided. It is as good with ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force) as it is with armed opposition groups, including ethnic militias. There is a large network of people we talk to.”

Meanwhile, Canada’s top soldier in Afghanistan said Sunday he’s confident the current process for holding and transferring detainees has enough checks and balances to ensure they are treated properly by Afghan authorities.

At the Kandahar Airfield, Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard said a combination of military and civilian monitoring, inspections and interviews now ensures that detainees will not be abused.

Menard, who took over command of Task Force Kandahar earlier this month, said he meets weekly with the Afghan head of the National Directorate of Security and holds them accountable when necessary.

"We can talk about specific issues. We can talk about specific detainees. This is when we can tell them, this is what we are seeing, what are you doing about it?" he said.

Ottawa’s ambassador to Afghanistan, William Crosbie, said Saturday that “nobody” from an international group responsible for the human rights of detainees “has contacted me or anyone at the embassy regarding anything alleging something involving Canadians in Afghanistan.”

Two senior Canadian military officers in Afghanistan who did not wish to be identified because of confidentiality obligations that Canada has with those responsible for detainees’ welfare, said they had never heard of the suspicions that any of their members had violated humanitarian law conventions here.

Although detainees do not meet the prisoner-of-war criteria as set out in the Geneva Conventions, Canada has chosen to treat them as such.

Fillion has much experience protecting the human rights of detainees in Afghanistan and in other countries. He was in Taliban-ruled Kabul on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked New York and the Pentagon in Washington and has also worked in Sudan, Iraq, Ethiopia and India.

With files from Ryan Cormier, Edmonton Journal