US
Tortured Afghanistan Detainees
By Duncan Campbell
and Suzanne Goldenberg
23 June, 2004
The Guardian
Detainees
held in Afghanistan by US troops have been routinely tortured and humiliated
as part of the interrogation process in the same way as those in Iraq.
Five detainees have
died in custody, three of them in suspicious circumstances, and survivors
have told stories of beatings, strippings, hoodings and sleep deprivation.
The nature of the
alleged abuse indicates that what happened at Abu Ghraib was part of
a pattern of interrogation that has been common practice since the invasion
of Afghanistan.
"The abuses
in Afghanistan were no less egregious than at Abu Ghraib, but because
there were no photographs - at least to our present knowledge - they
have not received enough attention," Senator Patrick Leahy, the
Democratic member of the Senate subcommittee on foreign operations,
told the Guardian.
"Prisoners
in Afghanistan were subjected to cruel and degrading treatment, and
some died from it. These abuses were part of a wider pattern stemming
from a White House attitude that 'anything goes' in the war against
terrorism, even if it crosses the line of illegality."
Syed Nabi Siddiqi,
a former police officer, said he had been beaten and stripped. "They
took off my uniform. I showed them my identity card from the government
of President Karsai. Then they asked me which of those animals - they
made the noise of goats, sheep, dogs, cows - have you had sexual activities
with?"
A second detainee,
Noor Aghah, said he had been forced to drink bottle after bottle of
water during his interrogation.
Another prisoner,
Wazir Muhammad, was held for nearly two years, firstly in Afghanistan
and then in Guantánamo Bay. "At the end of my time in Guantánamo,
I had to sign a paper saying I had been captured in battle which was
not true," he said. "I was stopped when I was in my taxi with
four passengers. But they told me I would have to spend the rest of
my life in Guantánamo if I did not sign it, so I did."
Parts of an investigation
into allegations of abuse in custody by Brigadier General Chuck Jacoby
are to be made public next month by the head of the US forces in Afghanistan,
Lieutenant General David Barno.
Gen Barno said:
"I will tell you without hesitation that intelligence procedures
have got to be done in accordance with the appropriate standards ...
all our forces will treat every detainee here with dignity and respect."
Bagram and the network
of US detention centres around Afghanistan have largely avoided scrutiny,
yet, according to the coalition forces last week, more than 2,000 people
have been detained there since the war.