Afghanistan: Prison conditions endanger lives

 

London: "The lives of thousands of prisoners in Afghanistan are at risk
because of the conditions in which they are detained," Amnesty
International warned today. Visitors to detention facilities are
reporting that prisons are dangerously overcrowded and that
prisoners lack adequate food and medicine and are not sheltered
from severe winter conditions.

Under the Bonn agreement, the Afghan Interim Authority is
formally in control of detention facilities. However under
international law the US has continuing responsibilities for the
welfare of prisoners who were in US custody before being handed
over.

It is also apparent that the US has significant
influence, if not control, over the situation of prisoners in
facilities run by Afghan authorities. US military personnel
reportedly interviewed detainees in Sheberghan prison and took a
number of them to the US controlled facility at Kandahar airport,
from which prisoners have been flown to the US detention facility
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In a statement yesterday, US Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld suggested that the US exerted overall
control of the thousands of detainees in Afghanistan, including
those currently held by Afghans.

Amnesty International also has serious concerns about
conditions at the Kandahar airport facility which was established
in mid-December. Journalists who were present when the detainees
reached the airport have reported that on arrival the prisoners
were gagged and blindfolded, with their hands and feet shackled,
and with all the prisoners tied together in a long line. They are
reportedly being held in cells made of concertina wire, in an
unheated former airport storage area with a dirt floor. The
building is reportedly lit 24 hours a day by strong halogen
lights.

"The Afghan Interim Authority and the US government
should urgently assess the conditions in which the prisoners are
held and take immediate steps to ensure that their treatment is
humane, as required by international human rights and
humanitarian law," Amnesty International said. "Prisoners must
be provided with adequate food and clothing, clean water and
medical care, and be housed in facilities that are not
overcrowded and that provide adequate protection from the
elements."

"It is vital that all detention facilities are open to
inspection by independent experts who are able to report publicly
and draw attention to serious concerns."

At Shebarghan prison in northern Afghanistan, a team from the
organization Physicians for Human Rights has just reported that
diseases - including dysentery, pneumonia and hepatitis - are
rampant, the water supply is unclean and sanitation is virtually
absent. The facility's commander told the team that "many"
prisoners had already died but that he had had "minimal"
response from the international community to his requests for
help in dealing with the situation. The prison was designed to
hold 800 prisoners but currently has more than 3000.