OTTAWA — Three cabinet ministers accused the opposition of “false, outrageous and insulting” allegations Wednesday as the Afghan detainees affair escalated after Canada’s top soldier reversed himself on the transfer of a Canadian captive to Afghan police.

Gen. Walter Natynczyk, chief of defence staff, ordered an investigation into a June 14, 2006, incident in which Canadian soldiers turned a captive over to Afghan police and took a photo before doing so in case he was assaulted. They took him back when they found him being beaten. Until Wednesday, the general had said the Afghan man was never in Canadian custody.

His admission at a news conference inflamed opposition MPs.

During testy exchanges at a House of Commons committee hearing, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon accused opposition MPs of being “fixated” on the treatment of enemies —Taliban prisoners “who in some cases had Canadian blood on their hands.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper turned aside calls for a public inquiry made by Liberal, NDP and Bloc Quebecois leaders after Natynczyk reversed his earlier assertions that a Taliban suspect beaten by Afghan police had never been in Canadian custody.

Natynczyk ordered a military investigation into the incident to find out why he was not told for more than three years that the captive had been in Canadian custody and to examine a Canadian soldier’s report that he took a photograph of the captive “to ensure that if the Afghan National Police did assault him, as had happened in the past, that we would have a visual record of his condition.”

The Canadians took the captive back when they found him being beaten with shoes by a half dozen Afghan police.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay asserted at the committee that the government had “never turned a blind eye” to widespread reports of poor conditions in Afghan prisons and, on the contrary, had worked to improve prisoner transfer procedures and treatment of detainees by Afghan police and guards.

“Let me be clear, the government of Canada has never been complicit in torture or any violation of international law by wilfully allowing detainees —Taliban prisoners — taken by the Canadian Forces to be exposed to abuse,” MacKay told the committee.

MacKay rejected as outrageous, false, and insulting opposition allegations, such as those of Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh who accused the government of ignoring a “compelling body of knowledge” from many international sources about torture in Afghan prisons.

“You continue to transfer prisoners to torture in the name of Canada,” Dosanjh said. “I think you stand indicted in the court of public opinion of turning a blind eye.” Some Conservative committee members reacted to that by laughing.

Gordon O’Connor also used the word “outrageous” to describe the opposition allegations. He described opposition suggestions that the government had covered up negligence as “the lowest form of politics.”

The committee on the Canadian mission in Afghanistan called the ministers to question them about testimony of Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin who testified Nov. 18 that it is likely all prisoners transferred to Afghan authorities in 2006-07 were tortured.

O’Connor, who was defence minister during most of Colvin’s Afghanistan posting in 2006-07, said he never read any of Colvin’s warnings, nor did anyone ever even hint to him that detainees handed over by Canadian troops may have been abused.

MacKay, O’Connor and Cannon testified hours after Natynczyk backtracked on his earlier assertions that a beaten and bloodied Afghan was never detained by Canadian troops before he was transferred to Afghan National Police.

“I want to correct my statement,” Natynczyk told a news conference in Ottawa. “The individual who was beaten by Afghan police was, in fact, in Canadian custody.”

Natynczyk said he was reversing himself after hearing for the first time Wednesday morning from the section commander who was at the scene.

The commander reported how one of three men in a white van stopped by Canadian soldiers was deemed a suspected Taliban on the basis of his accent and a “false” claim he was from Kandahar City.

Natynczyk said the soldier’s statement recounted how he had the suspect empty his pockets and lie down on his stomach and how he catalogued all the items and took down his particulars.

When the Canadians checked an unspecified amount of time later, they found a group of police beating the suspect with shoes, intervened and took him away for medical attention. Natynczyk said he had a scrape on his face.

The case has been cited by opposition MPs as evidence that MacKay misled Canadians by saying there is no credible evidence of abuse of even one detainee transferred by Canadians to Afghan authorities.

Natynczyk told reporters a board of inquiry, comprising military officials of different ranks, would investigate the matter and interview everyone involved. He said other military officials had reported to him the man had not been in Canadian custody. He said he wanted a board report “fast, fast.”

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