US transfers control of Bagram prison to Afghans

The United States handed control of the controversial giant Bagram prison to Afghan authorities on Monday. Hundreds of Afghan soldiers watched as an Afghan flag was hoisted in front of the prison at the huge US-run airfield north of Kabul, as part of a plan to withdraw foreign troops from combat operations in 2014.

|
Musadeq Sadeq/AP
Afghanistan's flag is seen, top right, as Afghan soldiers stand attention during a hand over ceremony of US-run prison to Afghan government in Bagram north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Sept. 10.

The United States handed control of the controversial giant Bagram prison and its 3,000 suspected Taliban inmates to Afghan authorities on Monday, amid concerns by activists over rights abuses and U.S. questions about Kabul's ability to keep key detainees behind bars.

Hundreds of Afghan soldiers watched as an Afghan flag was hoisted in front of the prison at the huge U.S.-run airfield north of Kabul, as part of a plan to withdraw foreign troops from combat operations in 2014.

"Today is a historical and glorious day for Afghanistan where Afghans are able to take charge of the prison themselves," acting Defence Minister Enayatullah Nazari told a large crowd including U.S. military officials.

But, in a move that has angered the Afghan government, the U.S. plans to keep at least one block at the prison, where any suspected Taliban fighters or terrorists captured in future raids will be held before being handed over.

Since the agreement on the handover was signed in March a further 600 people have been jailed at Bagram. The United States has no time frame on when these new prisoners will be handed over, and how long they plan to keep future captives.

The United States is also keeping another roughly 30 of the original group of detainees, amid concerns that Kabul might process them out instead of keeping them behind bars, as stipulated in the transfer agreement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday he spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the need to "continue to detain those that are a threat to their country," pursuent to the handover agreement.

"I expressed to him that it was important to celebrate this day that we are transfering authority of a large number of prisoners to the Afghan government. It's an important step," he said. "We want to make sure that they in every way abide by the agreements that we work out with them."

Afghan officials maintain that detention without trial is illegal under Afghan law. Karzai's spokesman, Aimal Faizi, declined to comment on the possibility of detention without trial happening anyway, simply saying: "We are against detainees not being processed by Afghan law."

Human rights concerns

Afghanistan has long sought control of the sprawling prison, which has been likened to Guantanamo in Cuba and Abu Graib in Iraq for its association with torture and long detention times.

Prisoners have often been held for years without trial, and human rights activists say they will be vulnerable to more rights abuses once the handover is complete.

Afghan lawyers say Afghanistan's social system of powerful tribes and influential families could mean that inmates are exposed to abuse if individuals are imprisoned without trial and on the basis of little, if any, evidence.

"A wealthy figure or a person of authority, if offended for whatever reason, can arrest an innocent citizen over personal or family vendettas," the president of Afghanistan's Independent Bar Association, Rohullah Qarizada, told Reuters.

The Open Society Foundation, a U.S.-based pro-democracy group, said "there is nothing that prevents the Afghan government from using the transition procedure to not only intern post-handover, but to subject anyone it deems to meet the detention criteria to internment anywhere in the country."

One former inmate, who spent five years at Bagram before being released without being charged, said conditions behind bars worsened when he was handed over to Afghan custody.

"The Afghans are no better than the Americans," said Karim Shah, adding that they had not let him pray during that time, a grave insult in ultra-religious, Muslim Afghanistan.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) served as a safeguard while the prison was under U.S. control.

Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) is expected to monitor Bagram under Afghan control, though no agreement has been reached with the government, according to an Open Society Foundation report last week urging the government to grant the monitor unrestricted access to the prison.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Editing by Amie Ferris-Rotman and Todd Eastham)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to US transfers control of Bagram prison to Afghans
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0910/US-transfers-control-of-Bagram-prison-to-Afghans
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe