Several 'illegal foreign detention facilities' uncovered in Afghan govt probe

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Several 'illegal foreign detention facilities' uncovered in Afghan govt probe
Published time: April 27, 2014

This picture taken on December 11, 2012 shows a general view of some accommodation at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan's Helmand Province (AFP Photo / John Stillwell)

Several "unlawful" prisons run by coalition forces in Afghanistan have been uncovered at Camp Bastion and Kandahar airfield in an investigation commissioned by President Hamid Karzai. The find could put a further strain on Afghan-Western relations.

“We have conducted a thorough investigation and search of Kandahar airfield and Camp Bastion and found several illegal and unlawful detention facilities run and operated by foreign military forces,” the head of the committee, Abdul Shakur Dadras, told the government Saturday, The New York Times reported.

Two sites were surveyed by Dadras’s team in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar – Camp Bastion, operated by the British, and the Kandahar airfield, which the Americans run. In the course of the investigation the team surveyed number of prisoners and the conditions they were kept in.

Further details and evidence will be released after a full report is made to President Karzai. The issue at Camp Bastion, otherwise known as 'British Guantanamo', had not been addressed in the past when the British stood accused of transferring prisoners to facilities where they knew torture was taking place. But it was not made clear in Dadras’s report whether these are the same facilities as the ones he described.

Similarly, according to the NY Times, the Kandahar case raises questions, as it’s not clear whether Dadras was referring to the regulation which prohibits the detention of an Afghani for a period longer than 96 hours, before handing them over to local forces, or if the team found evidence of a facility that is illegally holding locals.

A US army soldier from Company C,1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, MEDEVAC team walks over to a Blackhawk helicopter at southern Kandahar airfield (AFP Photo / Peter Parks)

News of the probe has received a quick response from Washington. Lt. Col. J. Todd Breasseale, a Defense Department spokesman, told the NY Times in an e-mail that “every facility that we use for detention is well known not only by the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, but also by the ICRC.” (The Red Cross has a strict policy of neutrality in matters of conflict.)

ISAF, the coalition armed forces command, also released a statement Saturday to say that it was “aware of [the Afghan] investigative team looking into the detention facilities in Kandahar and Helmand,” adding that ISAF is “cooperating fully with the investigation on this matter.”

The Americans then accused Karzai of trying to slander Western tactics in Afghanistan to garner political favor.

This is the latest in a string of accusations on the issues of detention between the government of outgoing president Karzai and Washington. Earlier this year, Karzai released from the US-run Bagram prison a number of Afghans captured by coalition forces for allegedly killing American troops – another move that stunned the West, who’ve been seeing Karzai’s moves as standoffish, while the leader increasingly accused the United States and Great Britain of gross human rights violations in their treatment of locals.

The souring relations that, according to the US, complicate cooperation on fighting terrorism have among other things been marked by the Afghan leader’s refusal to sign a bilateral security agreement with Washington regarding the scale of the American operation in Afghanistan after the upcoming military withdrawal in late 2014.

Although Karzai has been seen by coalition forces to be difficult to deal with, these latest allegations of potential secret torture sites are nothing new in the Western Middle East campaign. Similar revelations were made in 2011 about the Bagram Air Base, where US elite special operations had reportedly held detainees for weeks, US officials revealed to the AP.

A detainee holding cell is pictured at a detention centre at the U.S. Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul (Reuters / Jonathon Burch)

Up until that point, Washington denied the existence of any such facilities in Afghanistan, despite evidence and testimony by former detainees and rights groups pointing to the contrary. The Pentagon then said that those were simply temporary holding cells where prisoners were not kept longer than 14 days, but the US officials the AP had spoken to said that this could go up to nine weeks.

The Joint Special Operations Command at Bagram Air Base was said to run a total of 20 such rendition sites. This is despite President Barack Obama’s criticism of the Bush administration’s handling of the region and its methods for extracting information.

Also in 2011, it was also revealed that the British were prepared to use any means necessary for extracting information out of Afghan prisoners, but that inquiry faced big problems before even taking off, and there were complaints from rights groups that the results were heavily doctored.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the CIA’s worldwide network of facilities for the enhanced rendition of Iraq and Afghani terror suspects caused much division even within the agency itself.

An early April report also reveals cases where CIA officials requested that torture methods continue, despite analysts’ view that prisoners had no information to offer. This was all in line with the US push to extract information by any means necessary. And the report also found that a number of CIA officials lied to the government about how they attained some of the information, as well as altering a lot of the details to make a solid case for continuing.

 

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UK told to hand over Afghans held in military jails
By David Loyn Afghanistan correspondent

Abdul Qayum says his arm was badly damaged by being tied up by British forces in Hemand

The Afghan government has ordered the UK to hand over detainees held in military jails in Helmand and Kandahar.


An Afghan investigation found 23 prisoners in two UK facilities; one had been held for 31 months.

The move comes after the High Court in London ruled that holding detainees for more than 96 hours was unlawful.

The issue of Afghan civilians detained by foreign forces has become a personal one for President Hamid Karzai.

The last British troops will leave Helmand in a matter of months and, although the election to replace him is under way, the president has continued to be outspoken in his criticism of what he sees as abuses by foreign forces.

His investigation was led by a state prosecutor, Abdul Shakur Dadras.

Abdul Shakur Dadras said Afghan forces must investigate Afghan suspects

"Non-Afghan military forces do not have the right to hold any prisoners even for a day or an hour."


He said that of the 17 prisoners he saw in Camp Bastion none had been held for less than a month.

And he said he was told by the British authorities in the camp that the prisoner held for 31 months, Noor Ahmad, was a dangerous man and should not be released.

But Mr Dadras said national and international laws "do not allow them to hold someone for that long".


"Whether he is a dangerous man or not it is the right of Afghan forces to investigate," he said.

'Dog bit me'
I spoke to Abdul Qayum and his son Amanullah, farmers from Babaji in western Helmand, two of the hundreds of people in the province caught up in the net cast by British soldiers in recent years.

Babaji has been the scene of fierce fighting with the loss of many British lives in 2008.

In 2013 the two men were awoken by loud noises and lights in the middle of the night and told to come out of their house.

Amanullah said: "It was so dark that you could not see your hand in front of your face, and there was heavy rain.

"I wanted to call to my father, but the translator told me not to move, or the foreigners would shoot.


"I said I would not move.


"Then they told me to come forward with my hands up, and they arrested me and set the dog on me.


"The dog bit me here. Look you can still see the mark."

British forces, who have already left their outposts in Helmand, will leave Afghanistan later this year

After he was bitten by the dog, Amanullah says soldiers swore at him, insulting him and his wife.

The two were questioned because improvised explosive devices were found in the road near their house.

They were held for six days, two days longer than the legal maximum of 96 hours, and released without charge.


By then Abdul Qayum's arm had been so badly damaged by the way he was tied up that a year later he has not recovered full use of it.
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