U.N. report: Afghan security forces routinely abuse detainees

A  disturbing report from the New York Times:  Suspects are hung by their hands, beaten with cables and in some cases their genitals are twisted until they lose consciousness in detention facilities run by the Afghan intelligence service and the Afghan national police, according to a study released Monday by the United Nations here.[…] The ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

disturbing report from the New York Times:

disturbing report from the New York Times:

 Suspects are hung by their hands, beaten with cables and in some cases their genitals are twisted until they lose consciousness in detention facilities run by the Afghan intelligence service and the Afghan national police, according to a study released Monday by the United Nations here.[…]

The report found evidence of “a compelling pattern and practice of systematic torture and ill-treatment” during interrogation in the accounts of nearly half of the detainees of the intelligence service, known as the National Directorate of Intelligence, who were interviewed by United Nations researchers. The national police treatment of detainees was somewhat less severe and widespread, the report found. Its research covered 47 facilities sites in 22 provinces. “Use of interrogation methods, including suspension, beatings, electric shock, stress positions and threatened sexual assault is unacceptable by any standard of international human rights law,” the report said. 

Troublingly, the report found 89 detainees who had been transfered to Afghan custody by international forces, 19 of whom were later tortured. The international Convention of Torture prohibits the transfering of detainees to countries where a substantial risk of torture exists. Britain and Canada have both halted transfers to the Afghan NDS in the past for this reason. NATO Commander, Gen. John R. Allen halted transfers of suspected insurgents to 16 of the facilities identified back in September. 

To state the obvious, it would somewhat undercut this administration’s opposition to torture if it’s continuing to transfer detainees while knowing they’ll be tortured by another country.  

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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