Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Financial Times
April 22, 2008 By Frances Williams, in Geneva
The hundreds of security detainees in Afghanistan should receive better treatment under strengthened legal safeguards, according to the head of the international committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Jakob Kellenberger said he was concerned detainees were being held by the US military and Afghan authorities without charge, sometimes for years, without their cases being properly reviewed.
Mr Kellenberger met detainees at the US military base at Bagram and at Pul-i-Charkhi, a large Afghan-controlled prison on the outskirts of Kabul, during a week-long visit to the war-torn country. On his return, he told the Financial Times the question they asked most was “Why are we here?”
“Some of these people have lost years of their lives. They are entitled to a serious examination of whether they are still a security risk. And if they are not, they should be freed,” he said.
Mr Kellenberger welcomed the belated establishment of “enemy combatant review boards”, which consider every six months whether to release any of the 600-plus prisoners at Bagram or keep them in custody. But he said the process should be given further substance by admitting new testimony from outside rather than simply reviewing existing evidence.
Mr Kellenberger said ICRC representatives had made 120 visits to Bagram and conditions had improved, most recently with the introduction of video-conferencing for family members from its office in Kabul. He hoped other improvements, such as family visits and better recreational facilities, would follow. The ICRC has also recently been granted access to prisoners at 16 US field detention sites.
“We are clearly being listened to, even if we are not getting what we ask for immediately. I think we are making progress,” he said.
During talks with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, Mr Kellenberger said he emphasised the need for humane treatment of detainees and basic legal rights for those put on trial.
The ICRC has a mandate under the 1949 Geneva Conventions to promote and monitor compliance with international humanitarian law, including prison visits.
The all-Swiss agency, founded in Geneva in 1863, maintains strict rules of independence and neutrality and normally makes its representations in private, rarely speaking in public.
The ICRC has been in Afghanistan since 1987, including under the Taliban regime. It is one of the few international agencies still operating in the south of the country, where fighting between Nato forces and Taliban insurgents has been the most fierce.
April 22, 2008 By Frances Williams, in Geneva
The hundreds of security detainees in Afghanistan should receive better treatment under strengthened legal safeguards, according to the head of the international committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Jakob Kellenberger said he was concerned detainees were being held by the US military and Afghan authorities without charge, sometimes for years, without their cases being properly reviewed.
Mr Kellenberger met detainees at the US military base at Bagram and at Pul-i-Charkhi, a large Afghan-controlled prison on the outskirts of Kabul, during a week-long visit to the war-torn country. On his return, he told the Financial Times the question they asked most was “Why are we here?”
“Some of these people have lost years of their lives. They are entitled to a serious examination of whether they are still a security risk. And if they are not, they should be freed,” he said.
Mr Kellenberger welcomed the belated establishment of “enemy combatant review boards”, which consider every six months whether to release any of the 600-plus prisoners at Bagram or keep them in custody. But he said the process should be given further substance by admitting new testimony from outside rather than simply reviewing existing evidence.
Mr Kellenberger said ICRC representatives had made 120 visits to Bagram and conditions had improved, most recently with the introduction of video-conferencing for family members from its office in Kabul. He hoped other improvements, such as family visits and better recreational facilities, would follow. The ICRC has also recently been granted access to prisoners at 16 US field detention sites.
“We are clearly being listened to, even if we are not getting what we ask for immediately. I think we are making progress,” he said.
During talks with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, Mr Kellenberger said he emphasised the need for humane treatment of detainees and basic legal rights for those put on trial.
The ICRC has a mandate under the 1949 Geneva Conventions to promote and monitor compliance with international humanitarian law, including prison visits.
The all-Swiss agency, founded in Geneva in 1863, maintains strict rules of independence and neutrality and normally makes its representations in private, rarely speaking in public.
The ICRC has been in Afghanistan since 1987, including under the Taliban regime. It is one of the few international agencies still operating in the south of the country, where fighting between Nato forces and Taliban insurgents has been the most fierce.