An Afghan human rights official says he heard "rumours" that suspected Taliban detainees turned over to his country's authorities were being tortured.
Abdul Quadar Noorzai, manager of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission's Kandahar office, told The Canadian Press on Sunday that he didn't inform Canada's Conservative government.
"I have heard that they were being tortured, but I don't have any proof," Noorzai said. "I heard this (as a) rumour."
Noorzai, whose agency was asked by Canada at the end of February to monitor the fate of prisoners, said he requires more than just rumours before reporting cases to Canadian authorities.
His remarks come as a Conservative cabinet minister argued there's no proof of any abuse of detainees that Canada's soldiers have turned over.
"My problem is that we keep getting these false allegations," Peter Van Loan, the government's house leader, told CTV's Question Period.
"We have yet to see one specific allegation of torture. If they have one specific name, we'd be happy to have it investigated and chase it down."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, embattled Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay have all insisted they were not aware of "specific" cases.
Earlier this week, the Tories did ask the Afghan government to investigate the matter -- after saying they had no information.
On Friday, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day denounced the allegations as Taliban fabrications.
The Globe and Mail newspaper broke the story last week and named six of 30 detainees who alleged they were tortured by Afghan authorities after being turned over.
Graeme Smith, the reporter who did the story, said their claims were backed up by other sources -- including the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.
"They did confirm some of these accounts," he told Question Period from Kandahar.
Now the commission is facing threats from the Afghan government for doing so, he said.
"There's a lot of pressure being applied, and I'm actually very concerned about some of the staff members who helped me," Smith said.
A confused situation
In late 2005, Canada's then-Liberal government signed a deal with Afghanistan to transfer prisoners to their authority. But unlike other NATO countries, Canada didn't insist on the right to monitor the well-being of the prisoners.
Some human rights advocates have argued that turning people over to be tortured constitutes a war crime.
While Noorzai's agency now has responsibility for the prisoners, he has had difficulty getting access to them -- especially the ones held by the NDS, the feared intelligence service.
The Canadian and Afghan governments have denied the agency has faced any access problems.
The head of the NDS said any claims of access problems are "lies."
Noorzai told CP he was only granted access at the end of March and that the Kandahar head of NDS, a Gen. Quyaum, refused to meet with him.
Gen. Tim Grant, the commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, held a meeting between the agency and NDS on Thursday.
"Now we have no problem with the NDS," said Noorzai.
With a report from CTV's Roger Smith and files from The Canadian Press
