KABUL/WASHINGTON, 18 January — The United States yesterday pledged to stand by Afghanistan as legal experts and human rights activists raised concern about Taleban and Al-Qaeda detainees at the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba. "We will be with you in this current crisis and for the future," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told a joint news conference with Afghanistan’s interim leader, Hamid Karzai in Kabul. "We are committed to doing everything we can to assist you in this time of transition to a new Afghanistan," Powell said. The World Bank estimates Afghanistan’s reconstruction will cost $15 billion over 10 years. Powell said his government planned a significant contribution to the country’s reconstruction.
"In all our meetings with the Afghan people, they ask us — ‘Is the United States committed? Will they stay with us?’" said Karzai. "Now I can tell them, ‘Yes, the US will stay with us.’"
In the southern city of Kandahar, US Marines questioned a man who said he was a key financial backer of the Taleban, while British police made a wave of anti-terror arrests, charging two Algerians with belonging to Al-Qaeda. The two Algerians, who were also charged with "financing terrorism," were arrested as part of a pan-European investigation two weeks after the September attacks. Baghdad Meziane, 36, and Brahim Benmerzouga, 30, appeared in court in the central England town of Leicester. They were held in custody and are due to appear at Leicester Crown Court on Jan. 24, court officials said.
A former chief prosecutor for United Nations international criminal tribunals slammed the United States for trying to create a new category of prisoner for fighters captured in Afghanistan. "It seems to me the United States is creating some new category," said Richard Goldstone, the former chief prosecutor for the UN tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
"Either they’re prisoners of war, in which case they are entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention. (Or) if they’re not prisoners of war, they are common criminals and they should be brought to trial in the US if it wishes to do that," he added.
Goldstone, who is a South African constitutional court judge, added his voice to a growing number of groups attached to the UN and human rights advocates who have expressed concern about the conditions in which prisoners from Afghanistan are being transferred to and held at the US naval base at Guantanamo.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said Wednesday she was very concerned about allegations over the treatment of prisoners, responding to reports that they were shackled and drugged during their transfer from Afghanistan to the US military base. International Red Cross workers were to get their first glimpse of conditions at the remote US military outpost later.
In Pakistan, police arrested seven Al-Qaeda members, including three foreigners. The foreigners were identified as nationals from Britain, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, officials said. Four others were Pakistanis.
