All Afghan detainees were tortured
Canadian diplomat posted to Afghanistan claims he sent repeated warnings to Ottawa about the mishandling of prisoners
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A Canadian diplomat told a Commons committee on Wednesday that every single detainee transferred by Canadian soldiers to Afghan authorities between 2006 and 2007 was beaten and tortured using electric shocks. As if that weren’t enough, Richard Colvin, who served as the political officer at the Canadian-run provincial reconstruction base in Afghanistan, says many of those detainess had committed no crime. Colvin told special committee on Afghanistan he repeatedly warned officials in the Foreign Affairs and Defence departments of the mistreatment of prisoners, but that warns went unheeded. In fact, Colvin says he was told not to write about prisoners in his reports and that military officials ignored similar warnings from the Red Cross.