Article

2010-01-17 Afghanistan

The US government Friday released a long-secret list of some 645 detainees held at Bagram military base in Afghanistan.

The list was just a small part of roughly 2,000 pages of documents that were released related to various lawsuits seeking government papers about detainees.

The identities of the detainees at Bagram air base had been sought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

What business is it of the American CLU? The International Committee of the Red Cross I could understand, but this group should have their attention focussed on more local concerns.

The list is dated Sept. 22, 2009.

The nationalities as well as the date the inmates were captured have been blacked out in the list.

ACLU lawyer Melissa Goodman said the government should also provide the details of how the inmates were captured and why they are being held. "Hundreds of people have languished at Bagram for years in horrid and abusive conditions, without even being told why they're detained or given a fair chance to argue for release," Goodman said.

"This is completely unprecedented, we've never had access to the list," said Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at City University of New York who represents a Yemeni man, Amin al Bakri, who was captured in Thailand in 2002 and sent to Bagram.

The proper answer to that is, "We only release such information to the appropriate organizations." After all, what other lists have the ACLU been given, and in what detail?

The Afghan government has agreed on a plan to take over responsibility for the prison at Bagram, where there have been allegations of human rights abuses. US and Afghan officials said the hand-over could occur by the end of the year.

Posted by Fred 2010-01-17 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top
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