Red Cross targets Afghan warlords' private prisons

The trend in Afghanistan, since late last year, has been for the US to release prisoners from custody in Bagram, its main prison, under the amnesty program designed in cooperation with the Afghan government. Only about 450 people remain in US custody at Bagram. As calm and 'progress' is achieved in Kabul, the situation in the provinces is no better or worse. (This can also be said of the security situation as a whole, just yesterday, the fifth cleric in less than a month was assassinated in Southern Afghanistan, and Kandahar airport was reportedly shelled.)

There are an untold number of prisoners held in Afghanistan's remote provincial areas, either at US facilities, Afghan government facilities, or private prisons run by powerful, armed warlords. The number in US custody in the provinces is presumably small, and many people are detained for short (albeit traumatic) interrogations. The 6,000 prisoners are in Afghan government custody, at the Government's own admittance, are often held in extremely poor conditions, suffering hunger, cold, and indefinite stays before seeing a judge.

The number languishing in mysterious "private prisons" is unknown. Conditions in these prisons are much worse, as could be imagined. For years, the UN and Amnesty International have spoken out against these prisons, claiming that the Afghan government should do more to close them. But, as with almost every area of government, in the area of policing and detention, the Kabul-based government exercises scant control over the provinces.

The Afghan media reports that the International Committee of the Red Cross (or Crescent, in Afghanistan) has begun a campaign in the north of the country to seek out and denounce "private prisons." One wonders how much the Red Cross can accomplish on its own, without a more vigorous US/Afghan effort to disarm warlords once and for all.