The ICRC's policy of discretion is what makes the ICRC so effective. It gets access, even from the most repressive of regimes, because those regimes know that the ICRC will not turn around and tell other people what's going on. The discretion and the confidentiality is why the ICRC gets access to prisoners. The price it pays is that it cannot go public. It cannot talk to third countries. It cannot fulfil the kind of function the Government of Canada seems to be expecting of it in these circumstances. That is what I believe the ICRC representative would have told you today if he or she had felt they were able to show up.
On December 11th, 2006. See this statement in context.