U.N. Expert Reprimands U.S. on Afghan Prisons

[Rose Siding]

KABUL -- A U.N. human rights expert on Saturday slammed U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan for barring him from visiting detention centers and pronounced a Kabul prison "inhuman."

The U.S. refusal to allow people to see the facilities represents "a lack of transparency that raises serious concerns about the legality of detention . . . and conditions of those detainees," said the expert, Cherif Bassiouni.

Former prisoners say they were tortured and abused while in U.S. custody, raising concerns that the scandal over the mistreatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison earlier this year was not an isolated episode.

The U.S. military, which had earlier this month been expected to release an internal report into allegations of prisoner abuse, turned down Bassiouni's request to visit centers where suspected militants are held.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22550-2004Aug21.html

Still...

[grytpype]

1. Jesus, are they still abusing prisoners?

If they are... it is just unbelievable.

[Zhade]

2. IF? No one's stopping them.

They've seen they can get away with it, because they ARE getting away with it.

And people wonder why "they" hate us. To which I reply: FUCKING DUH! I HATE US for letting this shit happen.

I realized last night that one of my biggest fears is that Kerry will be elected, and then - nothing. No arrests. No trials. No accountability. No justice.

And we let ourselves forget it all happened, and drop it. Convince ourselves that "the long nightmare is over", that we don't need systemic change in the way the American empire does business.

That frightens me as much as a second b*sh term - because if we do that, we are worthless as a people.

I'll leave this country if we let justice fall by the wayside again.

[G_j]

3. UN Expert Denounces Abuses, Illegal Prisons in Afghanistan

UN Expert Denounces Abuses, Illegal Prisons in Afghanistan
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/082404Z.shtml

Afghanistan: UN Expert Denounces Abuses in Illegal Prisons
By UN News Centre
YubaNet
Monday 23 August 2004

A United Nations Independent Expert on Afghanistan is denouncing abuses taking place at an illegal jail there, and seeking answers from the United States on getting the prisoners released.

Briefing reporters in Kabul on Saturday, Professor Cherif Bassiouni referred to a group of 725 out of some 3,200 persons originally detained by the Northern alliance -- "and apparently some US forces were involved" -- who then were transferred from Shibergan to Pul --e-Charkhi prison under the authority of the Government.

The expert, who visited the prison, called conditions there inhuman. "They violate every standard of human rights whether under UN standards of minimum rules for the treatment of offenders or under international humanitarian law," he said.

He also called the detention illegal, because the suspects were arrested as combatants and therefore as prisoners of war. "Every Government official I have discussed this matter with has agreed that there's no legal basis for their detention, and everyone has said that they should be released," he said.

..more..

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U.N. Expert Reprimands U.S. on Afghan Prisons
http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2004%20News%20archives/August/22n/Rights%20Expert%20Berates%20US%20on%20Afghan%20Detentions.htm