New report confirms torture at Bagram /Afghan detainees mistreated in secret U.S. jail: report

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New report confirms torture at Bagram

Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:39PM

 

The notorious Bagram prison, north of Kabul

A new report reveals that American prison guards have mistreated Afghan detainees held at the notorious US-run Bagram prison camp and airbase in Afghanistan.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/146745.html

According to the report, issued by the US-based Open Society Foundation on Thursday, former Bagram detainees say their US jailors placed prisoners in solitary confinement, abused them and prevented them from observing religious rituals.

They also say they were deprived of proper food and natural light.

"It was like sleeping in the fridge,'' one of the former detainees told researchers for the report.

Other revelations show that prison guards withheld Red Cross visits to the secret US prison.

However, the US claims that all its facilities operate legally and meet international requirements and detention rules. US officials also claim that all inmates in the facility are treated humanely.

Over 800 detainees are being held at the Bagram military base. The secret prison became a symbol of prisoner abuse after US troops beat two detainees to death there in 2002.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has confirmed reports on the existence of a secret detention facility at the US airbase in Bagram.

The Red Cross said in May 2010 that it had been informed of names of several detainees held in the hidden prison in Afghanistan.

Several former prisoners asserted earlier in April that they were held at the facility, where they suffered abuse.

Human rights groups say Bagram has remained a US torture center since the toppling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan nine years ago.

JR/MB

Afghan detainees mistreated in secret U.S. jail: report

 

KABUL | Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:43pm EDT

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69D47Q20101014

KABUL (Reuters) - Former detainees at a secret U.S. prison in Afghanistan say jailers mistreated them by depriving them of natural light, failing to provide proper food and withholding Red Cross visits, a report said Thursday.

In the report by Open Society Foundations, established by billionaire George Soros, former Afghan detainees say they were abused at the classified detention center on Afghanistan's U.S. Bagram airbase, north of Kabul.

The jail, the existence of which is not openly acknowledged by Washington, is separate from the main U.S. prison in Afghanistan, also at Bagram and now housed in a new $60 million complex that U.S. officials plan to hand over to Afghan control.

Bagram became a symbol of prisoner abuse after U.S. troops beat two prisoners to death there in 2002 in the first year of the 9-year-old war. Washington says treatment at all of its jails in Afghanistan is now in line with international law.

In the report, former detainees said they were held in isolation cells with inadequate bedding and food, restricted from exercise and prevented from carrying out religious duties, which the report says is against U.S. claims its detention rules meet international requirements.

"It appears this facility is either ignoring those rules or intepreting them so loosely that it makes detainees susceptible to mistreatment," said Johnathan Horowitz, a rights expert who authored the report.

A spokeswoman for U.S. military detention operations said the International Committee of the Red Cross was aware of the temporary holding centers it operates and that all treatment complied with international and U.S. laws.

"The nature of warfare requires that the United States protect certain information from public disclosure in order to protect operational security," Capt. Pamela Kunze said.

Earlier this year, there were around 1,000 prisoners held in foreign military detention centers in Afghanistan, more than 800 of them in the main jail at Bagram, originally set up in an old Soviet hangar and moved last year into the new complex.

Only recently have Afghan prisoners begun appearing before local judges and lawyers as the U.S. officials hand over control to Afghans.

(Reporting by Patrick Markey; Editing by Peter Graff)

© Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters

 

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