BBC documents abuse at 2 bases in Afghanistan

Residents of Paktia province reported to the BBC some of the exact same abuses which residents of Uruzgan Province recount in "Taliban Country". They include sexual humiliation, starvation and water deprivation, and extended use of stress positions. The witnesses who talked to the BBC were released from US custody, some after 16 months of detention. None were ever charged with or found guilty of anything. The claims of abuse happened in the latter half of 2004 in Gardez Compound. More allegations come from a former interpreter with US forces, who alleges he saw a juvenile in custody at Asadabad Fire Base (in Kunar province) denied water for four days, who was later found dead, presumably of dehydration.

With this report, the film Taliban Country, and a recent report by the LA Times, a clear pattern of abuse in local holding facilities in Afghanistan has been established. When will the US military come clean?

"At first, they took all our clothes off and told us to stand up. When they were interrogating me, I was naked."

Haji Mirza Mohammed was arrested from his home and accused of working with the Taleban in the autumn of 2004.

He was taken to the nearby infantry base of the US-led coalition at Gardez in south-east Afghanistan.

"For four days, I had my hands cuffed behind me," he says. "They stopped giving me food and I wasn't allowed to sleep."

[...]

Another former detainee at the Gardez base, Jannat Gul, said he was forced into a kneeling position in the middle of a room, surrounded by four or five American interrogators.

"They said, 'don't sit back on your heels, don't look to the side'. They were beating me, telling me bad things. They ordered me to stay kneeling until the morning. I was three nights without sleep and then the last night, I had to kneel until morning."

Jannat Gul says he was punched and kicked. At one point, he says, he was told to lie down.

"They picked me up by my neck and said, 'we're going to kill you unless you confess what you did'."

As he describes his experiences, a couple of phrases in English are scattered among the Persian - "put your arms up" is one. The other is, "shut the **** up".

"I'm a farmer," says Jannat Gul, showing his calloused hands.