The International Committee of the Red Cross is denying claims made by Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor that the aid group is responsible for monitoring the Canada-Afghanistan detainee-transfer agreement.
The transfer agreement originally signed in 2005 by Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, stipulates that detainees will not face execution after Canadian troops hand them over. It also requires that "accurate written records accounting for all detainees" be kept by both Canada and Afghanistan.
"We were informed of the agreement, but we are not a party to it and we are not monitoring the implementation of it," Simon Schorno, a spokesman for the ICRC, told The Globe and Mail.
The Red Cross also said that they would never tell Ottawa about any abuses found in Afghan prisons.
Schorno said that the ICRC can only make known its assessments or interventions to the government whose facilities it is visiting. Under its own charter, the ICRC is not allowed to disclose findings to third parties.
The position contradicts numerous statements made by O'Connor as late as last Sunday when he revealed that Canada has signed a separate agreement that requires an Afghan human rights group to monitor treatment of detainees.
"We want assurances that they're treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention. I know according to the rules of law they don't have to be treated under the Geneva Convention, but we insist that they are. We are reliant on the International Red Cross to monitor this and now we're asking the human rights organization to also do it," he said.
O'Connor also made the claim to the House of Commons on May 31:
"The Red Cross or the Red Crescent is responsible to supervise their treatment once the prisoners are in the hands of the Afghan authorities. If there is something wrong with their treatment, the Red Cross or Red Crescent would inform us and we would take action," he said.
The disappearance of three Afghan detainees -- key prisoners in the investigation into alleged abuse by Canadian soldiers -- has prompted strong criticism over the prisoner handover agreement.
Critics say Canada is putting too much faith in the Afghan military to treat suspected militants with respect, claiming they are often subjected to torture and even execution.
"This is a tremendous failing on the part of the Department of National Defence and I worry about it," Amin Attaran, a law professor from the University of Ottawa, told Â鶹´«Ã½net on Friday.
Foreign Affairs has also formally contradicted O'Connor's claim.
"The ICRC is not required to notify Canada," Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Ambra Dickie confirmed in an email approved by senior officials.
The response was a reply to this question from the Globe: "Is the ICRC required to notify Canada of any suspected violations of the Geneva Convention against detainees transferred into Afghan custody by Canada?"
A spokesperson for O'Connor did not return calls on Wednesday.
Schorno would not directly comment on the statements made by O'Connor but he did say that the ICRC has no agreement with Canada to visit detainees in the custody of Canadian Forces and that the agency has never done so.
"The ICRC doesn't visit detainees in Canadian detention," he said.
He said the ICRC has no complaints or any other conclusions because they've never had an agreement.
