KABUL — Afghan investigators accused the American military Saturday of abusing detainees at its main prison in the country, bolstering calls by President Hamid Karzai for the U.S. to turn over control of the facility and complicating talks about America’s future role in Afghanistan.
The investigators also called for any detainee held without evidence to be freed, putting the U.S. and Afghan governments on a collision course in an issue that will decide the fate of hundreds of suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives captured by American forces and held indefinitely.
Karzai took Washington by surprise Thursday when he ordered that the U.S. military turn over full control of the prison outside Bagram Air Base within one month, a seemingly impossible deadline given U.S. security concerns about the prisoners and the Afghan government’s weak administrative capacity.
The countries had been working on phasing a transfer of responsibility of the prison, which holds 3,000 detainees, over two years.
Karzai spokesman Mohammad Sediq Amerkhil said Saturday that the president’s remarks were a direct response to the investigation team’s report of abuse and prolonged detentions.
Detainees interviewed during two visits to the U.S.-run portion of the Parwan detention center outside Bagram Air Base — about 25 miles north of Kabul — complained of freezing cold, humiliating strip searches and light deprivation, said Gul Rahman Qazi, who led the investigation ordered by Karzai.
Another investigator, Sayed Noorullah, said the prison and all detainees must be transferred to Afghan control “as soon as possible,” adding, “if there is no evidence . . . they have the right to be freed.”
U.S. Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall said Saturday that American officials only recently received the commission’s report. He said the U.S. investigates all allegations of prisoner abuse.
