Amid a flurry of human rights abuse allegations, the controversial Afghan Intelligence Agency confirmed the transfer and care of detainees will be more transparent now that issues of miscommunication have been resolved.
A spokesperson from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), who spoke to Â鶹´«Ã½ on condition of anonymity, has agreed unrestricted access to Afghan detainees is now available.
"We couldn't go there but now our people can go anywhere they want, NDS, jail and other offices," said the commissioner.
Canada's agreement with the AIHRC gives the group permission to monitor prisoners once they leave Canadian custody, but the group says they've been denied access by the feared National Directorate of Security.
The NDS, Afghanistan's intelligence police, have been accused of beating, choking, starving, freezing and whipping suspected Taliban insurgents within their secret headquarters in order to garner more information from them, after they have been handed over by Canadian forces.
Officials inside NDS now say corrections officers and RCMP in Afghanistan will have access to NDS and other prisons as well.
NDS authorities say the lack of access to prisoners was a communications breakdown rather than a deliberate attempt at concealing instances of abuse.
Communication was reportedly reestablished over the past week by a series of phone calls between Ottawa and Kandahar.
"That technical problem has been solved in a few days so there is no problem," one AIHRC official told Â鶹´«Ã½.
The top NATO commander in southern Afghanistan said that while all is not well with Afghan security forces, the issue of detainee access and treatment is of the highest priority for NATO.
"It is something that is now higher on the agenda than ever," Tom van Loon, commander of Regional Command South, told Â鶹´«Ã½.
He said in addition to more infantry, Afghan police and NDS officials will work with mentoring teams that will promote the importance of human rights and respect for prisoners.
Van Loon maintained it would be a step backward if the security of suspected Taliban prisoners was the responsibility of coalition forces rather than that of local Afghan security forces.
The treatment of detainees has come under fire this week as allegations of human right's abuse, torture and conspiracy were hurled across the floor in the House of Commons.
Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier were accused of releasing detainees into Afghan custody despite knowing of abuse allegations, which is in direct violation of the Geneva Convention.
On Wednesday, O'Connor stunned even his own colleagues when he announced a new deal was signed between Afghan and Canadian officials that would allow access to detainees to ensure against torture. It was learned on Thursday that such a deal does not yet exist.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day further shocked the House of Commons on Thursday when he said corrections officers in Afghanistan have always had access to detainees.
The opposition shot back at the Conservatives saying that public policy was being "made on the fly" and that the contradictions and controversy of late demonstrated the federal government is in a state of "chaos."
With a report from CTV's Lisa LaFlamme in Kandahar
