Ottawa: The United States and Israel are on a Canadian Foreign Affairs Department watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured, CTV television reported.

The document cited the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a place where prisoners could be tortured. Guantanamo holds Omar Khadr, a Canadian accused of killing a US soldier with a hand grenade in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old.

CTV said the document is used in a workshop to teach Canadian diplomats how to tell if a Canadian held in a foreign jail has been tortured, CTV reported yesterday.

The document lists a series of countries where the possibility of torture is high, including Syria, Iran, China and Afghanistan. But it also includes the United States and Israel. It highlights US torture techniques including forced nudity, isolation and sleep deprivation, CTV said.

Questioned by email by AFP on the reported document, Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Neil Hrab said "the training manual is not a policy document and does not reflect the views or policies of this government."

In an interview with CTV, Khadr s lawyer, Bill Kuebler, said he was surprised the Canadian government has done nothing to protect his client if there are suspicions he may have been mistreated in Guantanamo.

Kuebler said other western countries have successfully pressed for the release of their citizens held at Guantanamo. Human rights groups and prominent Canadian citizens are calling for 21-year-old Khadr's repatriation so he can benefit from normal due process of law.

Training diplomats to make them more aware of torture began after Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar in 2002 was deported by the United States to Syria, where he was imprisoned for nearly a year and said he was tortured.

Source : PTI