OTTAWA - Roughly 21 per cent of Afghan prisoners interviewed by Canadian diplomats over a nine-month period reported some form of abuse by Afghan authorities, say new figures released Monday.
The numbers, laid out during testimony before a Military Police Complaints Commission hearing, show that eight of 38 captives taken into custody by the Canadian army in late 2007 and early 2008 claim to have been mistreated.
Maj.-Gen. Guy Laroche, who commanded the military in Kandahar during that time, says before halting the handover of prisoners, he needed hard evidence of possible abuse.
"We make the best decisions based on the information we have," Laroche testified.
A lawyer for two human-rights groups fighting to stop the transfers altogether, Paul Champ, said the documents show most prisoners complained they were tortured in the same manner. The number of allegations should have given ground commanders pause, he said.
But Laroche said they were allegations that needed to be investigated and it was impossible to stop handovers every time there was an unproven claim.
"The fact that there were allegations doesn't mean they were founded," said Laroche, who was making his second appearance before the hearing, which was called to determine what military police knew -- or should have known -- about alleged torture in Afghan jails.
"When you look at it in hindsight with all the data you have, after three years and the events having unfolded as they did, it's easy to come to the conclusion that, yes, right now there were allegations; there were 'x' number of visits and here was the percentage. But at the time, obviously, in the field we did not have the luxury of looking at these figures."
Under cross-examination by Champ, Laroche acknowledged the numbers were startling.
"I do agree with you when you look at the figures now, the number of allegations, with the number of visits and so forth, obviously questions are raised and that's what we were doing."
It was under Laroche's direction that transfers were halted for four months.
The only time the federal government received direct evidence of torture was in November 2007 when a diplomat saw marks on one prisoner and the cables used to whip him -- prompting Ottawa to suspend the handovers.
Laroche resisted bureaucratic pressure from Ottawa to resume the program until he was satisfied that the risk was mitigated.
International law prohibits transfer of prisoners between nations if there is a risk of torture and Champ argued Monday that the general, who most recently commanded Canada's relief mission in Haiti, had ample warning about the practices of Afghanistan's notorious intelligence service, where the vast majority of prisoners ended up.
It was established Monday that one of the prisoners Laroche ordered transferred claimed to have been tortured.
The general described Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security as a flawed institution, but suggested it was the best of other security agencies.
"We knew that the NDS was an agency we needed to keep a watchful eye on and that's why we put in place measures to rectify shortcomings," he said. "We knew it wasn't an organization that was as professional as we would have liked them."
His testimony stands in contrast to a fellow flag officer, Maj.-Gen. Mike Ward, who told the inquiry on Sept. 9 that the NDS was a "highly thought-of organization."
The Canadian army acknowledges handing over 283 prisoners to Afghan authorities between 2001 and 2009.
NDP defence critic Jack Harris said Laroche's testimony is startling and strengthens his call for a full public inquiry.
"The fact there were allegations means the Canadian Forces should have erred on the side of caution," Harris said. "If this was the attitude at DND, there needs to be a more complete investigation."
