D_Raay
12-13-2004, 04:56 PM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4092073.stm
^Again BBC reports it first, what the hell does our media do? Wait until they HAVE to report it I suppose.
The New York-based campaign group Human Rights Watch says it has uncovered evidence that three more prisoners have died in US detention in Afghanistan.
In a damning open letter to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, it says the US is continuing to fail to investigate abuses or punish the guilty.
Human Rights Watch also calls on the US military to publish a delayed internal report on its Afghan detention centres.
The US authorities promised to release parts of the report several months ago.
The group says the three new cases of detainees dying in American custody bring to six the total it has documented over the past few years.
Four cases involve allegations of murder or manslaughter.
Claims of torture
One of the new cases refers to a soldier from the US-trained Afghan army, who reportedly died after being wrongly arrested in the Gardez area of eastern Afghanistan and repeatedly beaten by American troops.
Another allegation involves four US soldiers accused of murdering an Afghan detainee in 2002.
Human Rights Watch says the case has only just come to light, because of the release of documents from an internal army investigation after a request by another US campaign group under the Freedom of Information Act.
The group - which has followed the actions of US forces in Afghanistan closely since they arrived here in late 2001 - says it is aware of "only a handful of criminal investigations" into these cases and also many claims of torture by detainees.
It says it knows of only two US personnel being charged with any crime.
What it calls the "government's failure to hold its personnel accountable for serious abuses has spawned a culture of impunity among some personnel".
Its letter to Donald Rumsfeld says there are fewer complaints now relating to the main US detention centre at Bagram airbase north of Kabul.
However, allegations of "abuse and arbitrary detention" continue to emerge from what are known as "forward operating bases" - smaller posts normally in frontline areas.
There is particular concern, it says, about the behaviour of special forces troops toward detainees at such bases.
The Human Rights Watch letter also points out that the US-run detention system in Afghanistan operates entirely outside the rule of law.
Revelations of abuse
Although Red Cross officials are allowed to visit detention centres, their reports are never made public.
---
"I'm an old man, I can't be expected to keep an eye on the prisons to can I?"
^Again BBC reports it first, what the hell does our media do? Wait until they HAVE to report it I suppose.
The New York-based campaign group Human Rights Watch says it has uncovered evidence that three more prisoners have died in US detention in Afghanistan.
In a damning open letter to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, it says the US is continuing to fail to investigate abuses or punish the guilty.
Human Rights Watch also calls on the US military to publish a delayed internal report on its Afghan detention centres.
The US authorities promised to release parts of the report several months ago.
The group says the three new cases of detainees dying in American custody bring to six the total it has documented over the past few years.
Four cases involve allegations of murder or manslaughter.
Claims of torture
One of the new cases refers to a soldier from the US-trained Afghan army, who reportedly died after being wrongly arrested in the Gardez area of eastern Afghanistan and repeatedly beaten by American troops.
Another allegation involves four US soldiers accused of murdering an Afghan detainee in 2002.
Human Rights Watch says the case has only just come to light, because of the release of documents from an internal army investigation after a request by another US campaign group under the Freedom of Information Act.
The group - which has followed the actions of US forces in Afghanistan closely since they arrived here in late 2001 - says it is aware of "only a handful of criminal investigations" into these cases and also many claims of torture by detainees.
It says it knows of only two US personnel being charged with any crime.
What it calls the "government's failure to hold its personnel accountable for serious abuses has spawned a culture of impunity among some personnel".
Its letter to Donald Rumsfeld says there are fewer complaints now relating to the main US detention centre at Bagram airbase north of Kabul.
However, allegations of "abuse and arbitrary detention" continue to emerge from what are known as "forward operating bases" - smaller posts normally in frontline areas.
There is particular concern, it says, about the behaviour of special forces troops toward detainees at such bases.
The Human Rights Watch letter also points out that the US-run detention system in Afghanistan operates entirely outside the rule of law.
Revelations of abuse
Although Red Cross officials are allowed to visit detention centres, their reports are never made public.
---
"I'm an old man, I can't be expected to keep an eye on the prisons to can I?"