generalspeaking

Investigation Concluded

It sounds like a noble mission. To use his elite academic position and knowledge of the law to fight for the rights of those whom he considers to be vulnerable, oppressed, lesser creatures of society by virtue of the fact that they have no one to speak on their behalf and become victims of policies both social and political.

His very position as a professor at the University of Ottawa and Canada Research Chair in law, population health and global development policy aids weight to his mission.

His academic credentials reflect his training as a biologist and a lawyer. He has invested himself in speaking up for health and human rights issues. And he has bought into the prevalent belief among some within Canada, including the NDP and the Liberals, that under the current NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, Canadian soldiers and their leaders are guilty of human rights abuses.

Dr. Attaran has been convinced that Afghan prisoners captured by the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan were abused when they were handed over to the Afghan national security forces. This situation may have occurred as well, according to available data, during the previous Liberal-led government, although the Armed Forces spokespeople deny any deliberate such occurrences, explaining that when there were suspicions the Afghan prisoners were withdrawn.

Now Dr. Attaran, acting as legal representative for a Canadian-Afghan, Ahmadshah Malgarai, who had been useful to the Canadian military when he was employed as an interpreter in Kandahar, rejects the findings of Canadian military police who conducted an investigation into any possible human rights violations by the Canadian Armed Forces. "You can't have the military investigate the military and get an answer that is credible", he stated flatly.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, having completed their investigation into claims brought by Ahmadshah Malgarai that Canadian soldiers had killed an unarmed Afghan teen-ager and then victimized an additional ten Afghan villagers to hide the killing of an innocent by planting a weapon on the corpse of the dead 17-year-old, have cleared the Canadian Forces.

"We found no evidence whatsoever of any of that or any wrongdoing by any Canadian Forces members", announced Lieutenant-Colonel Gilles Sansterre, commanding officer of the investigation service. It is that conclusive assurance clearing the Canadian Forces of claims laid against them by his client, that Dr. Attaran takes umbrage with.

"It really is completely irrelevant when the military investigates the military", he said dismissively. Dr. Attaran considers his client, Mr. Malgarai's testimony - who claims to have read documents revealing the complicity of the Canadian Army personnel in a cover-up of military violations in their treatment of prisoners under the Geneva Convention - to be completely credible as opposed.

The investigation did reveal that a 17-year-old Afghan had died during a Canadian-led operation, but they concluded that "no criminal or service offences were committed in relation to this incident. Based on interviews with those individuals directly involved, including Afghan witnesses, and a detailed examination of the evidence, the individual was determined to be an armed threat and a legitimate target."

Might it not be feasible that Mr. Malgarai had been pursuing his own questionable agenda in pushing what he claims to have been deliberate violence waged against innocent Afghans? Might Dr. Attaran's missionary zeal in pursuing those allegations of wrong-doing owe more to his commitment to defend the defenceless than a reflection of reality?

Canada, through its armed forces has committed to assisting a far-off country mired in poverty, ignorance and religious sectarian violence, costing the country dearly in lost lives and treasury. NATO is mired within Afghanistan reflecting a concern about fanatical Islamism's attacks on the West.

There are times when during war situations truly unfortunate situations develop and accountability is demanded. There is no accountability with respect to assurances of human rights observed on the part of the Taliban who murder at will, victimize women and children, refuse educational and occupational opportunities to the young, and afflict the world with opiates through poppy cultivation that funds their violent assaults internal and external.

Canadians would like to believe, and have reason to believe, that our armed forces have acquitted themselves honourably and courageously. We have no reason to believe otherwise.

Labels: Afghanistan, Canada, Human Relations, NATO

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, January 19, 2011