To the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court:
I am writing to you as a last resort. I realize this is a very long shot, but I have no other recourse. The Canadian government has been hiding evidence of possible war crimes for 5 years, stemming from the handing over of Afghan prisoners to Afghan intelligence officers. The allegation is that our government knew, or should have known (since they were warned by diplomats in the field) that allowing such transfers were putting prisoners into the hands of torturers.
Yesterday, after five years of stalling, including some very undemocratic parliamentary maneuvers, the government released 10 percent of the documents requested by parliament and declared the matter “over”. They have signaled (and since they have a parliamentary majority, are most capable of delivering) that they will block any further investigation into this matter.
I urge you to consider opening an investigation of this matter yourself. I am not a lawyer, I am only a citizen of Canada and I feel that I have nowhere to turn, here in Canada. Please take a look at the documents released (found here : http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/06/22/pol-afghan-detainee-docs-embed.html). I truly believe that if your organization does not begin an investigation, that there is a real possibility that people responsible for setting dangerous humans rights policies will feel emboldened to duplicate this model elsewhere.
As I said at the outset, I understand that the chances of you intervening are small, but I felt it was duty to do something.
Signed,
