OTTAWA - The country's former top soldier says he doesn't recall seeing warnings about alleged torture in Afghan jails from a Canadian diplomat in early in 2006.
Retired chief of defence staff Gen. Rick Hillier says he was pre-occupied throughout much of the spring, summer and fall of that year with the escalating war in Kandahar and doesn't remember reading reports filed by diplomat Richard Colvin.
The warnings were contained in two documents, filed in May and June 2006 that were circulated widely to senior officials within both the foreign affairs and defence departments.
The reports are the centre of a political storm because the Conservative government publicly denied any knowledge of potential abuse for almost a year after the warnings of mistreatment were issued.
Hillier did not discount the possibility Colvin's reports made it to his desk, but said if they did they didn't stand out as imminent threats.
He says there were general discussions about prisoners, especially after Amnesty International raised concerns, and he acknowledged there was a risk in handing over captured fighters, but suggested the military and diplomats believed the risk had been `mitigated' by notifying the International Red Cross.
