AFGHANISTAN:Amnesty says NATO Afghan detainees face torture risk
Updated
NATO troops in Afghanistan have been accused of turning a blind eye to allegations of prisoner torture. A new report by Amnesty International says NATO is handing over dozens of detaineed to the N-D-S, Afghanistan's Intelligence services where it's believed they are being subject to abuse. NATO says as far as its concerned those international obligations are being met.
Presenter: Linda LoPresti
Speakers: NATO spokesman James Apparathurai
APPARATHURAI: NATO's detention policy has been developed in consultation with the Red Cross. It meets all appropriate international standards and the Red Cross also monitors detainees and visits the prisons. The basic point is this - NATO has no evidence of torture, of systematic torture of detainees transferred by NATO to Afghan custody. That's the first point. Second point is that Afghanistan is a sovereign country, it has a constitution that requires the protection of human rights and it has, and that's key, it has the responsibility for detention of Afghans, the legal responsibility. It is not for NATO to create a parallel detention structure outside of the law.
LOPRESTI: Amnesty is saying though that it does have a number of researchers looking into the allegations of torture and it does have, it does seem to have a number of those allegations confirmed by various people in Afghanistan. Is it not possible that torture and other abuses are being carried out in these prisons?
APPARATHURAI: It can never be ruled out. We can't rule it out and that is precisely why many NATO countries have negotiated bi-lateral, what we call Memoranda of Understanding - agreements with the Afghan government to allow them to follow up on detainees. So if they hand over a detainee (and by the way when we do that the Red Cross is always informed) but when NATO allies who have these Memoranda of Understanding hand over a detainee, they have the right to track them, not only where they are but also their conditions. So we are paying attention to this issue. The final point I would make on that is this - the sustainable and by the way, legal route to address this challenge is not to create as I say a separate legal or detention system outside of the law of Afghanistan, but to help the Afghans develop a better system and allies are pouring support into the Afghan justice system to support legal and institutional reform.
LOPRESTI: The international conventions do prohibit transfers of prisoners, if there is reason to suspect abuse, and some rights experts say you know, western troops could face prosecution in such cases. So doesn't NATO have an international obligation here?
APPARATHURAI: We have an international obligation of course to be concerned about this issue. As I say, we have no evidence of systematic torture of detainees handed over by NATO to the Afghans and we have put in place, at least allies have put in place, follow-up arrangements to ensure that they can track detainees through the system and those have not revealed torture of detainees. And I've read the Amnesty report carefully. As you said there were allegations and concerns no more than that. To our point of view, the way we need to address the problems in the Afghan detention system, are to help the Afghans improve their detention system and that's what we're doing.
LOPRESTI: So does that mean you agree with Amnesty's report which is calling for transfers to stop until proper safeguards are put in place?
APPARATHURAI: No we're not agreeing with that. We feel that we have arrangements in place that are appropriate, as they say, including in the case of individual allies follow-up arrangements to keep track of the detainees. Let's have no doubt, Amnesty is a very reputable organization and we have twenty-six democracies in this alliance who care about these issues, but we do believe that the only sustainable and by the way, legal way forward, is to continue with the system that we have but help the Afghans improve theirs.
