KABUL, 2 December 2003 — Amnesty International criticized the United States yesterday, saying a failure to make public any details of an investigation into the deaths in custody of two Afghans last year showed a “chilling disregard for human life”.
The US military said in March that the deaths of the two prisoners at its Afghan headquarters at Bagram Air Base in December, 2002, had been listed as homicides, and it was investigating whether criminal charges would be brought.
“Although an investigation by the army’s criminal investigation division was announced, no reports on progress or conclusions have been made public,” William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a report.
“The failure to account for the prisoners’ deaths indicates a chilling disregard for the value of human life,” he said. “When apparent homicides occur in secret prisons, and promised investigations show no results, the country’s cherished values of humane treatment and respect for the law are dishonored.”
The detention center at Bagram is used to interrogate captured Taleban and Al-Qaeda suspects. Mullah Habibullah, who was about 30 years old, died there on Dec. 3, 2002, and a 22-year-old Afghan taxi driver called Dilawar died there seven days later.
The US military said at the time that autopsies showed Habibullah died from “pulmonary embolism”, or a blood clot in the lungs, and Dilawar of a heart attack. A report in the Washington Post in March quoted a US military spokesman as saying the two had “blunt force injuries”.
Amnesty said the deceased were among hundreds who have been held without charge and interrogated at Bagram, “only one of several overseas prisons operated by the US”.
The international rights group said its interviews with former prisoners, together with those conducted by journalists, confirmed that prisoners were subjected to ill-treatment that may constitute torture, including blindfolding, prolonged forced kneeling, sleep deprivation, and cruel use of shackles.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has begun registering the first of an estimated 10.5 million Afghans expected to vote in their volatile country’s first free elections next year.
The registration process began in the southern city of Kandahar on Sunday and was extended to seven other cities, including Kabul, yesterday, said Catarina Fabiansson, spokeswoman for the UN election office in Afghanistan.
All Afghans aged over 18 by June 20, 2004, are qualified to register to elect a national president in the elections, which are due to be held next June.
