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Afghanistan | ||||||
Afghanistan should act on torture report | ||||||
2013-02-04 | ||||||
A Jan 20 UN report found that more than half of 635 pre-trial detainees and prisoners convicted on national security grounds had been tortured or ill-treated while in Afghan government custody.
On Jan 22, President Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation to determine whether there were abuses in detention and identify perpetrators. 'The new UN report should sound alarm bells for the Afghan government to take decisive action to end torture,' said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. 'President Karzai needs to deliver on his recent promise to identify perpetrators of torture and to make sure those responsible are immediately arrested and prosecuted.'
Torture of prisoners in Afghan government custody has been regularly documented over the past decade, including by the Afghan government's independent human rights commission as well as by Human Rights Watch and other NGOs.
Unfortunately, Human Rights Watch said, the task force consisted almost entirely of Afghan government officials who have little or no human rights expertise, and includes representatives of the state agencies with the worst records on torture.
'Afghanistan needs a fully independent and permanent anti-torture body staffed by experienced human rights advocates with the resources and powers to conduct long-term and consistent monitoring and reform.'
Since the 2011 report, abuses in police custody have actually increased, while there was some reduction in intelligence service abuses. A quarter of torture victims were children. Almost a third of the 79 interviewees who had been handed over to Afghan authorities by international military forces reported torture or ill-treatment in Afghan custody. Detainees told the UN investigators that torture was typically used to try to elicit confessions.
Many detainees described being subjected to varied and escalating torture if they refused to confess or answer questions in a way that satisfied interrogators. | ||||||
Posted by:Steve White |