[DEBATE] : Nato urged to end Afghan torture ... err ...transfer

[Riaz K. Tayob]

  BBC NEWS
Nato urged to end Afghan transfer

Nato countries risk turning a blind eye to torture by continuing to 
transfer detainees to Afghan prisons, according to a report from Amnesty 
International.

The report cites what it calls "consistent" incidences of torture and 
other abuse by Afghanistan's intelligence service, the NDS.

International law prohibits the transfer of prisoners if there is reason 
to suspect abuse or torture.

But Nato says Afghanistan has the legal responsibility for Afghan prisoners.

Amnesty wants transfers to cease until proper safeguards are put in place.

Some members of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force 
(Isaf) - including the UK, the Netherlands and Canada - have 
"memorandums of understanding" with the Afghan authorities, which are 
supposed to ensure that transferred detainees are treated according to 
international standards.

But Amnesty says that proper monitoring of the agreements is impossible, 
partly because much of the country is inaccessible.

Food deprivation

The report says that prisoners have been whipped, exposed to extreme 
cold and deprived of food.

And it concludes that all prisoner transfers should be suspended while 
efforts are made to improve Afghanistan's prisons and training is given 
to Afghan prison staff.

	It is not for Nato to create a parallel detention structure outside the 
law of the land
James Appathurai
Isaf spokesman

Only when the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan meets international 
standards should prisoner transfers resume, the report urges.

But Isaf is unwilling to change the current arrangement.

"Afghanistan is a sovereign country... which has the legal 
responsibility for detention of Afghans," said Isaf spokesman James 
Appathurai.

"It is not for Nato to create a parallel detention structure outside the 
law of the land", he added.

Amnesty said British authorities had confirmed that they were looking 
into the alleged torture of a transferred prisoner in September, and 
that Belgian officials had admitted losing track of a suspected suicide 
bomber after he had been transferred to the NDS.

The report specifically did not examine US troops' detention system in 
Afghanistan.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7091928.stm

Published: 2007/11/13 08:18:29 GMT

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