Did Canadian Forces' insurgent handover break law?

[D-n-A]

By Mike Blanchfield



THE recent Armed Forces handover of Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents to the United States is the first such exchange of combatants in Afghanistan in at least three years, and has prompted Red Cross inquiries into whether Canada has breached international law.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says that Canada notified it in the last 11 days that its JTF2 special forces had handed over prisoners to the American military after capturing them in Afghanistan.

"This is the first time that we get such a notification," ICRC spokesman Vincent Lusser said yesterday from Geneva.

Lusser said the Canadian transfer of prisoners is the first such handover of combatants in Afghanistan since a renewed flare-up of violence earlier this year, and is believed to be the first country-to-country exchange of prisoners since Hamid Karzai formally became Afghanistan's president in 2002.

"It's not an international armed conflict in Afghanistan. The guys being captured now... they're not PoWs (prisoners of war)," said Lusser.

But he pointed out that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions requires that anyone taken prisoner in any sort of fighting is to be protected from violence, torture and cruel treatment. Critics, such as Amnesty International, question whether that is good enough, given the reports of American mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Iraq.

Lusser said that because the transfer of prisoners between coalition partners in Afghanistan is still a relatively "new phenomenon," the ICRC is still studying whether Canada has lived up to its international obligations under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.

"Are there any kind of responsibilities remaining in terms of the handover? At the moment, we at the ICRC, do not have an official position... We're still looking through that," Lusser said.

Brig.-Gen. Mike Ward, head of Canadian Armed Forces operations, told a briefing last week that Canada had received the necessary assurances of good treatment from the Americans. But he could not say whether the U.S. agreed not to transfer the prisoners to a third country, where they could face torture.

The U.S. has come under fire for transferring some detainees to countries with dubious human rights records such as Syria, Jordan and Egypt

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

:boring: :boring: :boring:
Must be slow news day.

given the reports of American mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Iraq.

..and more blah, blah, blah....

 

[patt]

i dont get why people want to help these terriost out...

 

[darmil]

The redcross should keep their noses out of operations.The troops have a job to do :threat:

 

[George Wallace]

OK MikeL

Deja vu

What is with these news articles, with not dates and links?  You posted another about the SSF veterans of WW II getting their Combat Infantry Badges after 40 years - old news and also this article - again old news.  What are you trying to prove? 

 

[D-n-A]

I don't have links or dates for these, I saw them posted earlier today on another forum, so I figured it was new.

 

[EW]

It is new, this article was on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen today (29 Sep) under the title "Forces investigated for handing prisoners to U.S."

 

[Brad Sallows]

Were we going to detain them? Try them?  Have we facilities?  Answer to all of the above - No.  Clearly we are not also going to free them.  So, who would you rather hand them over to in order to assure humane treatment - the Afghanis?

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Ship them to Syria??

 

[geo]

I'm 100% in agreement with Mr Sallows on this one.
considering the size of our force and the fact that we are only one of many in a coalition, we have to be able to rely on our allies.... everyone doing what he does best.... and carrying his fair share of the can.
The US is best suited and best equiped to handle the prisoners... and that's where they are going.
Yes, there have been instances of abuse - the abusers have been caught, they are being tried and they are going to jail for the bad acts they have perpetrated on their prisoners.
One of two things would happen if they were turned over to the Afghans....
either they would be allowed to slip away.... meaning we would be stuck having to catch em again OR they would be thrown into 3rd world prison conditions where their chance of survival & being rehabilitated would be NIL...

else... what are we going to do... fast track them for immigration to Canada?
(not funny!)

 

[KevinB]

Ditto