Afghan security
October 11, 2011
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) report, released on October 10, has been compiled after interviewing 379 prisoners in 47 detention facilities of the Afghan intelligence agency, formally known as the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and the Afghan National Police (ANP).
Findings expose severe rights violations
The report contains detailed information about 379 detainees and their experiences at the hands of Afghan security officials. Several of these reported that they were hung up by their wrists for long hours and were repeatedly subjected to beating with rubber hoses, electric cables, wires and hoses. Several had their toenails forcibly removed and were also victims of sexual abuse.
324 of the detainees had been arrested on conflict-related charges and 21 percent of these did not know why they had been detained in the first place. UN officials also interviewed 37 children of less than 18 years of age who had been tortured and forced to confess to a crime. No women had been arrested on conflict-related charges. Afghan authorities usually detain women if they have been found guilty of transgressing the Islamic Sharia code, according to the report.
Who takes the blame?
Although the UN document does not point the finger at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and explicitly speaks about NDS detention centers, Kate Clark of the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) says that this analysis "comes in a context where the international powers have a huge amount of power and influence in Afghanistan and who have handed over detainees to the Afghan authorities."
It is illegal, she adds, to hand over detainees to forces which will torture them. "Although the foreign forces have not tortured the prisoners themselves, they have facilitated it," she explains. The Afghan forces receive billions of dollars in funding every year to train their soldiers in order to prepare them for taking over the country’s security before the international security forces for Afghanistan (ISAF) leave the country in 2014.
The innocent suffer most
In addition, the UN findings may also spell trouble for western countries back home. The US for example, has a specific law which says that they cannot fund foreign agencies if there is evidence of torture, explains Clark. "Most of the other countries have already instituted some sort of reform, mainly because of scandals back home," she adds, giving the example of Britain where a court case was filed against the government for handing over detainees to the Afghan National Directorate of Security. The UK and Canada, according to the UN report, have now ceased the transfer of detainees to Afghan prisons.
Although the UN believes that the report’s findings may provide impetus to introduce changes in the Afghan law enforcement systems, Clark thinks otherwise. Most Afghans, she says, take it for granted that they will be tortured if they fall into the hands of the Afghan police. This is what makes the whole issue very distressing, she believes, since "a lot of innocent people are being detained and tortured," she adds.
Author: Manasi Gopalakrishnan
Editor: Grahame Lucas