Troops told Geneva rules don't apply to Taliban

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060530.wxdetainee30/BNStory/Afghanistan/home

WASHINGTON — Canadian troops in Afghanistan have been told the Geneva Conventions and Canadian regulations regarding the rights of prisoners of war don't apply to Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters captured on the battlefield.

That decision strips detainees of key rights and protections under the rules of war, including the right to be released at the end of the conflict and not to be held criminally liable for lawful combat.

“The whole purpose of those regulations is to know if Geneva applies,” said Amir Attaran, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who has been pressing the Defence Department for details of its detainee policy for months. snip

The decision to ignore the regulations without a legal test of whether detainees in Afghanistan are entitled to PoW status puts Canada “in a very odd situation. It's completely irregular,” Prof. Attaran says.

[Philosoraptor]

1. Same with the U.S. troops, I've heard the neocons say it.

Many times. "These insurgents don't wear a uniform, they don't fight fair, they are guerilla fighters, they are so sub-human that they don't even deserve our help or mercy", etc.

[Tesla]

3. That is their uniform!!

[izzie]

2. I have this funny feeling from reading all the WW2 books

Any one know history real well? The German army was told the same about Russia.

[izzie]

4. Is that like saying their is no speed limit on this road?

So every one just does the laws for every other road? Yar right. Canada seems to have gone a new way since this new guy got in. Has he kissed Bush's hand yet?

[merwin]

5. Not sure, but he's definately kissed another part of Bush's anatomy.

[izzie]

8. Well you would not want an little old lady to say that

After all I can see how bow legged the poor man is already. Really hard to think how so many Am. were taken in by this just bad president. I sat to day waiting for my car to be fixed and I sure got an ear full of what people think of this man and it is not good. 2 and half hours of what bad things he was doing to this country.

[mortlefaucheur]

6. The MurKKKans and their Canuck

lapdogs should be made to drop their armaments where they stand, and beg for a humiliating 'armistice'.
Afghanistan was wrong too...

[bigtree]

7. no other reason but arrogance of power

[Spazito]

9. They have backed off on this....

Canadians following rules of war, O'Connor says


Prisoners captured in Afghanistan by Canadian forces will have the rights accorded to them by the Geneva Convention, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said Wednesday.

"When they take prisoners, they will always follow the rules of the Geneva Convention, no lower standard than that," he told the Commons.

His comments are in response to an article published in Wednesday's Globe and Mail.

The report said Canadian troops operating in Afghanistan have been told that the Geneva Conventions and Canadian regulations regarding the rights of prisoners of war do not apply to fighters captured on the battlefield.


more

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060531/geneva_rules_canada_060531/20060531?hub=Canada

I am more concerned with this part of the article in the OP:

Similar secrecy cloaks what happens to detainees handed over to Afghan authorities by Canadian Forces fighting in Kandahar province. Gen. Gauthier indicated such transfers occur regularly, if not daily then several times a week. But no numbers are publicly available.

“Our default setting is transfer,” he said. “We haven't held anybody for more than a few hours and we would prefer not to.”

Once transferred, they don't check into what happens to the prisoners and they don't care, sadly.

[NNN0LHI]

10. Thanks for the update and the part you mentioned bothered me too

It kind of reminded me of the Poles handing Jews over to the Germans to never be heard from again.

Don

[Spazito]

11. Yes, it is easy to say all prisoners will be treated in accordance

with the Geneva Conventions while in your custody when you immediately transfer them out of your custody. Having captured the prisoners, Canada's responsibility does NOT end at that transfer, we are still responsible to ensure they are not tortured, etc,. We are a member of the ICC so can be held directly accountable for crimes committed because we did not ensure the prisoners were being treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions by those to whom the prisoners were transferred.

[Ksec]

12. Open season on Afghanis

Daily bag limit- ten per day

Unbelievable how these pricks have taken the rules away.