Rights violations at SheberghanREGARDING THE May 6 story "Prisoner transfer underway in Afghanistan" (Page A14): In light of the horrific findings at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the need for the US government to investigate what could be grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, it is all the more important to expose what appears to be a systemic problem. While the article refers to the squalid prison conditions at Sheberghan, Afghanistan, it fails to mention alleged US culpability.
I visited Sheberghan prison in Afghanistan in January 2002 and reported on the deplorable conditions. I found severe overcrowding, nonexistent sanitation -- all resulting in epidemic illness and deaths. At the time, the US military had just finished a three-week interrogation process selecting those they wished to move to other Afghan prisons or to Guantanamo Bay. The rest remained in squalor, without due process and under the control of the notorious warlord General Abdurrashid Dostum, a US partner in the Northern Alliance. Indeed, it is suspected that possibly thousands of the prisoners who did not survive the transport to the prison ended up in a mass grave. The Bush administration has repeatedly denied responsibility for preventing or alleviating gross human rights violations at Sheberghan. The Geneva Conventions are clear: Prisoners captured in multinational conflicts cannot be handed over to the national authority unless that authority is capable of fulfilling support obligations. The Afghan authorities were not capable, nor did General Dostum's brutal record make it likely that he would protect these prisoners. Responsibility remained with the US-led international coalition. US military personnel, contractors, and proxy forces all need to be held accountable.
JOHN HEFFERNAN © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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