Human Rights Watch urges Canada to conduct a full inquiry into the alleged torture of detainees turned over to Afghan custody by its forces back in 2006-7.

The HRW says Canadians have a right to know whether their soldiers in Afghanistan had handed over those detained by them to Afghan security officials to face torture.

The statement came a week after a senior Canadian diplomat, Richard Colvin, based in Afghanistan at the time, told a House of Commons committee that the prisoners were likely tortured in Afghanistan.

Canadian officials had received repeated warnings about detainee abuse, after they were transferred to Afghan custody, he said.

Colvin testified that senior Canadian government officials ignored his repeated warnings about the detainee abuse.

The Human Rights Watch has called Colvin's allegations credible and alarming. It says the testimony is supported by other independent evidence about torture and ill-treatment by Afghan security forces.

A March 2004 report by HRW found that those in Afghan custody were held "in poor conditions" and some were "subjected to torture and other mistreatment."

HRW said that knowingly transferring people to a government where they are likely to be tortured can amount to complicity under the Convention Against Torture that Canada ratified in 1987.

According to Colvin, Canada took roughly six times more prisoners than the British forces and 20 times more than the Dutch. He said the vast majority of the prisoners were ordinary Afghans, many with no connection to the insurgency.

FTP/SS/MMA