An Afghan-Canadian who served as an interpreter for Canada’s military has breathed new life into the detainee controversy with troubling allegations that this country’s soldiers deliberately transferred prisoners to torture.
Ahmadshah Malgarai also told a Commons committee yesterday that he came across evidence troops killed an innocent Afghan teen in 2007 and then tried to cover it up.
A few hours later, the country’s top soldier issued a statement saying the Canadian military will probe these “grave accusations.” It was a remarkably different tone from last fall, when the Harper government and the military dismissed other allegations, calling them as groundless.
Mr. Malgarai, whose Canadian Forces’ codename was “Pasha,” was an interpreter for the military in Afghanistan for one year ending in June, 2008. He distributed copies of letters of commendation he received from the military and Afghan government.
Yesterday, he told MPs disturbing stories about Canada’s practice of handing over detainees to Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), which frequently tortured prisoners.
“I saw Canadian military intelligence sending detainees to the NDS when the detainees did not tell them what they expected to hear,” Mr. Malgarai told the special Commons committee on Afghanistan.
“If the [Canadian] interrogator thought a detainee was lying, the military sent him to NDS for more questions, Afghan style. Translation: abuse and torture.”
Effectively, he said, “the military used the NDS as subcontractors for abuse and torture.”
Mr. Malgarai’s testimony is the most explosive to enter the long-running and divisive political debate about Canada’s conduct in Afghanistan since last November. That’s when diplomat Richard Colvin told MPs nearly all detainees handed over were tortured and that Ottawa turned a deaf ear to his warnings that prisoners were destined for abuse.
The military used the NDS as subcontractors for abuse and torture — Former military interpreter Ahmadshah Malgarai
None of the ex-interpreter’s allegations have been proven, and the Harper government and the military have repeatedly pledged that they never knowingly handed over detainees to abuse – an offence considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
Last night, Chief of the Defence Staff General Walt Natynczyk defended the reputation of his soldiers in a widely circulated press release, saying they have “conducted themselves with bravery and compassion” in Afghanistan.
“I can assure all Canadians that we take all allegations seriously and will investigate new allegations appropriately,” Gen. Natynczyk said.
There is friction between Mr. Malgarai and the Canadian government. He alleges that someone in the Canadian Forces leaked his real name and identity to the Taliban, calling it punishment for complaining to them about detainee transfers. The ex-interpreter says this led to death threats from the Taliban and forced his family to flee Afghanistan as refugees.
Mr. Malgarai, who now lives in Ottawa, said Defence Minister Peter MacKay and former chief of the defence staff Rick Hillier refused his requests for help in relocating his family.
The Tories immediately challenged the ex-translator’s assertions.
“So you are calling all of the generals who testified before this committee liars,” asked Conservative MP Laurie Hawn, parliamentary secretary to the Defence Minister.
Mr. Malgarai was reluctant to go into detail about his allegations outside the Commons committee, where he is protected by parliamentary immunity, so as to not breach secrecy agreements.
But he recounted several stories before MPs that he said illustrated how the Canadian government turned a blind eye to torture at the NDS.
In one July, 2007, example, he said the NDS refused to take a detainee suffering battlefield injuries. The NDS colonel, in front of two Foreign Affairs advisers, placed his pistol on the table and said, “Here is my gun. Go shoot him. Give me the body and I will justify it for you.”
Mr. Malgarai said one Foreign Affairs official, Ed Jager, immediately told the colonel: “I will pretend you did not say [that] and I did not hear it.”
