Military gathers Afghan detainee papers

The Canadian military has started collecting paperworkat Kandahar Airfield that could shed light on whethercommanders turned over detainees to Afghan authorities without weighing the risk of torture.

A military team of four has arrivedfrom Canada toretrieve thousands of highly sensitive documents stashed in metal shipping containersthat detail the transfer of detainees from Canadian custody.

"It's not a document hunt," Lt.-Col. Shane Gifford, who is responsible for detainee files at the base, told The Canadian Press."We know where all the documents are. It's not looking for something that fell behind the chairs or something."

The files are the subject of intense controversy in Canada. The Military Police Complaints Commission, an independent federal body, has asked the Defence Departmentto disclose all documents on detainees, including detainee transfer orders in Kandahar.

But thegovernment says those files are beyond the commission's mandate and is trying to prevent their release. Two weeks ago, lawyers for the Justice Department filed an application with the Federal Court that seeks to overrule the commission's request.

The existence of the documents became publicly known in April during a commission hearing on thedetainee controversy.

In Ottawa, separate discussions between the Conservatives and opposition parties continue in an effort to reach a settlement on providing access to detainee records to a select number of MPs.

But the two sides have failed to come to a final agreement, despite a May 31 deadline to do so, raising concerns that the government could face a contempt of Parliament motion. That could trigger a court battle ora snap election.

The Conservatives say they had no concrete evidence of Canadian-captured prisoners being abused by the Afghans before November 2007.

But last fall, diplomat Richard Colvin told aCommons committee that Canadian officials were warned about possible torture in 2006 and took little or no action to stop the transfer of detainees.