Saturday, April 30, 2005

Ex-UN Afghanistan investigator speaks out

Cherif Bassiouni, Depaul Law Professor and ex-UN Independent investigator of human rights in Afghanistan, spoke with the New York Times on Friday about what he alleges was his removal from his post. Bassiouni reveals he was informed by email from Geneva that his "mandate was over" only two days after he submitted a 21-page report, which contained specific information about US and US-sponsored human rights violations.

He said he was rebuffed repeatedly in his efforts to visit prisons at the United States bases in Bagram and Kandahar by American officials who told him he was exceeding his mandate.

He discovered the use of 14 fire bases for detainees, he said, when he spotted an American military order warning commanders against keeping captives at the spots for more than two weeks.

Despite the lack of cooperation, he said, he had no trouble learning of rights violations. "Arbitrary arrest and detention are common knowledge in Afghanistan because the coalition forces are known to go to villages and towns and break down doors and arrest people and take them whenever they want," he said. [...]

Asked what he thought would happen to prisons in Afghanistan now, he said, "My guess is that torture will go down at the U.S. facilities, but what will go up is torture at the Afghan facilities. It's the usual shell game. The U.S. feels the heat, it tries to discontinue the practice itself, but it finds special forces in the Afghan Army to do its bidding."

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home