Two groups detail abuse of Afghan prisoners

Reports say conditions akin to those in Iraq

By Stephanie Hanes | Sun Staff

May 5, 2004

Within the past nine months, two respected human rights groups released reports describing what they said was the abuse of U.S.-held prisoners in Afghanistan, including instances of beatings, sleep deprivation and, in a small number of cases, killings of detainees.

The conditions that they described are roughly similar to those now under investigation at U.S.-run detention centers in Iraq. But the reports from Afghanistan received little attention when they were published.

Yesterday, the Army acknowledged that 20 investigations were under way into prisoner assaults and deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. But human rights advocates said these investigations do not fully address what the groups say are deep-seated problems in the military's policies toward detainees.

In March, Human Rights Watch released a report on "Abuses by U.S. forces in Afghanistan." Amnesty International produced a similar report in August last year.

The Human Rights Watch report describes a system of secret detentions, regular beatings, a lack of independent monitoring and a loose command system.

It also tells of an environment that did not take alleged prisoner abuse seriously - a military attitude that human rights activists say make the Abu Ghraib allegations in Iraq far from surprising.

"We wrote to the president, we wrote to Condi Rice, we wrote to Donald Rumsfeld," said Elisa Massimino, the Washington director of Human Rights First. "We said, you've got to get a handle on this. This is going to lead people to think that there aren't any rules. And here we are."

At least 1,000 Afghans and other nationals have been detained in Afghanistan detention facilities, Human Rights Watch estimated. There are some well-known, large prisons, such as the one at the Bagram air base north of Kabul, and many smaller detention facilities scattered throughout the country, the report said.

The Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reports note the December 2002 deaths of two detainees at Bagram, which were later ruled homicides by U.S. officials.

At the time, U.S. officials announced that they were launching investigations into the deaths. But they have kept details or outcomes of those inquiries secret, said John Sifton, who wrote Human Rights Watch's Afghanistan report.

"Abuses came out in Afghanistan well over a year ago and nothing happened," he said. "The U.S. military stonewalled our questions on the homicide deaths at Bagram; they made promises to the United Nations and Human Rights Watch that they didn't keep about disclosing the investigation."

Lt. Cmdr. Nick Balice, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said he would not respond to individual Human Rights Watch allegations, but said the investigation into the Bagram deaths is "ongoing."

Balice said the military takes complaints of abuse seriously, as it has demonstrated in its response to the Abu Ghraib situation.

"When there are allegations into any kind of detainee abuse ... investigations are conducted to evaluate the validity of those allegations," he said. "If they are determined to be valid, we seek to find those responsible and hold them accountable."

Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Pamela Hart said that this year, the Abu Ghraib allegations prompted the army into a full-scale analysis of its detention policies.

And yesterday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said more investigations would be opened to determine whether abuses occurred in other prisons and prison camps run by the U.S. military.

But human rights advocates said that when military investigations are kept secret, there is no way to ensure they are thorough or effective.

"It's one thing to announce the investigation," said Alistair Hodgett, a spokesman for Amnesty International. "But frankly, it needs to move along promptly. The fact that that didn't occur for the Bagram deaths - we feel it's allowed that type of activity to continue elsewhere."

Hodgett and other human rights advocates said they were disappointed when there was scant public outrage at those deaths.

'Nothing happened'