Report alleges ill-treatment of detainees in Afghanistan (Roundup)

Jun 24, 2009, 17:00 GMT

   London - A senior US diplomat in London said Wednesday he could not confirm a report by the BBC that detainees had been ill-treated at the Bagram military base in Afghanistan.

The BBC claimed that former detainees at the base near Kabul said they were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs by US forces at the camp.

   The broadcaster said it interviewed 27 former inmates of the base over the past two months.

   'I have no way of judging the credibility of your report,' Richard LeBaron, chargé d'affaires at the US embassy in London said in response in a BBC interview.

   'But, as a matter of principle, we look into all allegations of abuse,' he said.        LeBaron said people should remember that the US were 'operating in a war zone' in Afghanistan and that camp inmates were 'enemy combatants at war with us.'

   'There have been abuses in the past which have been investigated. We hope people are responsible,' said LeBaron.

   According to the report, the Pentagon has denied the charges and insisted that all inmates in the facility are treated humanely.

   The BBC said the detainees it talked to were held at the base during the period from 2002 and 2008 and all were accused of belonging to the al-Qaeda network or the Taliban.

   None were charged with any offence or put on trial, but some received apologies when they were released. Just two of the detainees said they had been treated well, according to the BBC.

   In the report, the detainees alleged physical abuse, the use of stress positions, excessive heat or cold, unbearably loud noise, and being forced to remove clothes in front of female soldiers.

   Four detainees said they were threatened with death at gunpoint. Some of the inmates were forcibly taken there from abroad, especially Pakistanis and at least two Britons.

   'They did things that you would not do against animals let alone to humans,' said one inmate known as Dr Khandan.

   'They poured cold water on you in winter and hot water in summer. They used dogs against us. They put a pistol or a gun to your head and threatened you with death,' he said.

   'They put some kind of medicine in the juice or water to make you sleepless and then they would interrogate you.'

   The BBC said its findings were shown to the Pentagon.

   It quoted Mark Wright, a spokesman for the US Secretary of Defence, as saying that conditions at Bagram 'meet international standards for care and custody'.

Clive Stafford Smith, the director of Reprieve, an organization representing former prisoners from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the detainees in Bagram included two Pakistani men handed over by Britain to the US in 2004.

Amnesty International's British director, Kate Allen, said the BBC revelations were just 'the latest in a long line of allegations of very serious abuse at Bagram.'

'We need to see an end to this sinister culture of secrecy that envelopes Bagram. What we need most of all is a complete switch of policy by the Obama administration so that Bagram detainees are afforded the basic right to at least challenge their detention,' she said.