KABUL, 22 May 2005 — Afghanistan’s president yesterday demanded “very, very strong” action by the United States against any military personnel found to be abusing prisoners, after a newspaper report alleged maltreatment of detainees at the main US base here. President Hamid Karzai said he will bring up the issue when he meets American leaders during a four-day visit to the US starting yesterday.
He also demanded greater control over US military operations here, including a stop to raids by American troops on Afghans’ homes without the knowledge of his administration. “No operations inside Afghanistan should take place without the consultation of the Afghan government,” the president said.
The abuse allegations were in a New York Times report Friday that cited a 2,000-page confidential file on the Army’s criminal investigation into the deaths of the two Afghans at the Bagram base north of the capital, Kabul, in December 2002.
“It has shocked me totally. We condemn it. We want the US government to take very, very strong action to take away people like that are working with their forces in Afghanistan,” Karzai told reporters before leaving Kabul. “Definitely ... I will see about that when I am in the United States.”
But he added that the actions of those responsible for the abuse should not be seen as reflective of all Americans. “The people of the United States are very kind people,” he said. “It is only one or two individuals who are bad, and such individuals are found in any military in any society everywhere, including Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, aid agencies pasted hundreds of posters of a kidnapped Italian relief worker across the Afghan capital yesterday, urging people to come forward with information about her whereabouts, and the country’s president called for her release.
The move came a day after foreign media reports quoted Temur Shah, the purported kidnapper of Clementina Cantoni, 32, as saying that he killed her because the government did not agree to his demands. However, the Italian’s employer, CARE International, said it was uncertain about the accuracy of the reports.
“Please help Clementina. She has been taken. For three years she served 10,000 widows and 50,000 war orphans in Afghanistan. If you have any information, please call,” the posters said. Karzai also called for her release. “Whoever has kidnapped her is the enemy of Afghanistan. We know who kidnapped her and we know why he has kidnapped her,” he told reporters.
