US, UK run illegal facilities in Afghanistan: Karzai
by alethoPress TV - April 30, 2014
Afghanistan
President Hamid Karzai says the United States and Britain continue
running “illegal” detention facilities in the country.
"After
many decrees that have been issued by the presidential palace about not
having any detention centers run by foreign forces, still foreign
forces are detaining Afghan and putting them in prisons," Karzai said in
a statement on Tuesday.
"It's a clear violation of the law of Afghanistan,” he added.
Karzai’s
remarks came after an investigation panel revealed that six Afghan
prisoners are held at a UK-run facility at Kandahar Air Field in the
country’s south and 17 others at a facility at Camp Bastion in Helmand
Province, which is also run by British forces.
Ghalum
Farooq Barakzai, the head of the panel, said that his team has not
found any prisoners at the American facilities, stressing that such
facilities should no longer exist.
Under
pressure from Afghan President, the US signed an agreement with Kabul
to transfer its prisons and inmates into Afghan custody. British forces
in the country are only allowed to hold suspects for 96 hours and can
detain them longer only in exceptional conditions.
Barakzai
called on Britain to hand over any Afghans held in the facilities,
saying that the 23 inmates detained ranging from several weeks to 31
months.
"All
the detainees should be transferred to Afghan security forces in the
areas where they were arrested. Then the judicial officials in that area
will investigate them and put them on trial. If they are guilty they
should be jailed, if they are innocent they should be freed," he also
said.
Earlier this year, Afghan government freed dozens of detainees held in the US-run Bagram prison.
In
November 2012, President Karzai ordered Afghan forces to take control
of the prison and accused US officials of failing to fully comply with
the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding on Detentions signed
between Kabul and Washington.
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