CANADA’S DIRTY HANDS
Eric S. Margolis - 4 May 2007
Canada is one of the world’s most respected, law-abiding nations. Yet recent shocking revelations show it has become a party to the torture of prisoners in Afghanistan and a violator of the Geneva Conventions?
The story begins in 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The Soviet KGB created a mirror -image secret police for its Afghan puppet government, KhAD. Having been pursued by KhAD agents, I can speak with personal knowledge of this subject.
KhAD sought to eradicate all opposition to the Communists. It also ran the education system and religious establishment. KhAD quickly became notorious, even in a famously brutal society, for its cruelties.
All political prisoners – that is, anyone who opposed the Communists – were subjected to systematic tortures. These ranged from garden variety beatings, pulling of finger nails, near-drowning and electric shocks to more refined cruelties. Prisoners were flayed alive, thrown into vats of sulphuric acid, blinded, buried alive, burned with gasoline, or slowly frozen in refrigerated rooms.
Psychological tortures - sleep deprivation, long isolation in darkness, sound assault, mock executions and psychotropic drugs were also used by KhAD under KGB supervision. The same tortures, known as `enhanced interrogation,’ are routinely used today by the CIA.
The Communists killed 2 million Afghans. Canada turned its back and refused to aid the mujahidin battling Soviet occupation. After the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the newborn Taliban movement drove the remaining Afghan Communists – rebranded the Northern Alliance – into the far northeast.
In 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan, allied itself to the Northern Alliance, and overthrew Taliban. A figurehead, Hamid Karzai, was put in power. Real power, however, was held by the Communist-dominated Northern Alliance.
Once the Northern Alliance took Kabul, the KhAD, rechristened NDS, was quickly reestablished. The old Communist torturers and war criminals went back into business.
Today, an estimated 60% of NDS personnel are former KhAD agents. US and Canadian forces fighting to pacify southern Afghanistan have been routinely handing captives and suspects over to the NDS secret police– in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Canada’s conservative government, reeling from public outrage, feebly claimed to have assurances from the Afghan Communist secret police - which had murdered or maimed tens of thousands of victims - to treat prisoners humanely.
How did Canada get into this mess? Conservative politicians in Ottawa saw a chance to win new voters by whipping up false patriotism in a jolly little war against `evil’ Muslims that was supposed to be….a slam dunk. They sought to curry favor with their ideological mentor, the Bush Administration.
No one in Ottawa had any knowledge whatsoever about Afghanistan, its tribal politics, or history. Even so, they dispatched 2,500 combat troops and $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan.
Senior Canadian officers and politicians who claim not to have known they were handing over prisoners to the Afghan secret police for torture are either stunningly ignorant or lying. I guess they never read Rudyard Kipling’s famous admonition to British soldiers fallen wounded in Afghanistan, `save your last bullet for yourself.’
This writer, who has covered many guerilla wars in Asia, Africa and Central America repeatedly warned in recent years that the longer Canadian troops stayed in Afghanistan, the more they would become brutalized and involved in war crimes. Such is the nature of all guerilla wars.
Canadians who still believe the fairy tale their forces in Afghanistan are `nation building’ or doing social work should reflect on the grim fate of prisoners their soldiers handed over to the mercies of the Afghan secret police.
Ottawa’s deal this week with Kabul for inspection of NDS prisoners is a sham. The KhAD had the same empty `agreement’ with human rights groups in the 1980’s.
It’s bad enough Canadian and other NATO troops are defending Afghanistan’s warlords who run its booming heroin industry. Now Canada is hand in glove with the Communist Party’s veteran torturers.
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copyright Eric S. Margolis 2007
Posted by Eric Margolis on May 4, 2007 05:30 PM
Comments:
Thankyou Eric for this article.
I think it is worth reflecting on the reports that our forces had been instructed that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to Afghan prisoners. The government was quick to back-pedal, claiming that although they did not apply, Canadian forces would not treat such prisoners any differently than if they did apply.
The obvious question at the time, was if one would not treat them any differently, then why issue such an instruction in the first place. I suggested at the time, that the reason might be in order to avoid our responsibility to assure that the prisoners are treated according to the conventions, not only by ourselves, but also by those whom we might hand them over to. What is most disturbing about this reasoning, is that it would imply that Canadian officials knew exactly what they were doing when they transferred prisoners to US or Afghan custody.
Does it really seem reasonable to assume that it was purely coincidence that caused Canadian officials to declare that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, just before they “accidentally” violated those conventions?
Posted by Raven at May 8, 2007 01:38 AM
Hello
I find it unfortunate that Mr Margolis has been swept up in the political environment of the day of polarized positions. Having just read the postscript from his revised book, I was disappointed to see his lack of balance is continued in this article. One hopes that historical balance and longer views than the roasting of a policy unpopular with himself at the moment.
Posted by bgbuss at May 12, 2007 08:15 AM
Bgbuss myfriend;
By reading only the postscripts of his book, how did you come to a conclusion so fast that his views were unbalanced?! Now that is by itself bias! First read the whole book, then make a judgement!
And since when “unpopularity” has anything to do with the “truth”? You have to keep in mind that all truth goes through three stages:
-First it is ridiculed
-Then it is violently opposed
-Finally it is accepted as self-evident
Cheers!
Posted by Ilker at May 31, 2007 08:48 AM
