BMJ 2011;343:d6773 doi: 10.1136/bmj.

d6773
News

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NEWS
Torture of adults and children detained in Afghan conflict is widespread, finds UN
John Zarocostas
Geneva

People detained on conflict related charges in facilities run by the Afghan intelligence service and national police, including a number of children, have been tortured and denied medical care, says a report.

deprivation and sensory deprivation; and twisting and wrenching of genitals. Access to medical care was denied in some facilities, and in one instance the individual died, says the report.

The report, released in Kabul, follows an investigation by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that included extensive interviews conducted between October 2010 and August 2011 with 379 detainees at 47 facilities. The investigation found compelling evidence that 125 of the 273 detainees held by the intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, experienced torture and that 41 of the 117 detainees held by the Afghan National Police experienced treatment that constituted torture, says the report. Of 37 child detainees interviewed, 23 reported torture. The report points out that the NATO led International Security Assistance Force was involved in handing over 89 detainees to Afghan authorities. Of these, the Afghan intelligence service tortured 19 and the national police three.

Sam Zarifi, Amnesty Internationals director for the Asia-Pacific region, told the BMJ that very few Afghan detention facilities have medical clinics. He said that the reports findings absolutely require a follow-up at multiple levels, including within the UN.

Mr Zarifi said that more people trained in monitoring prisoners needed to be involved in supervising prisons. Included among these should be forensic pathologists, he said, although he noted that Afghanistan lacks these. Juan Mndez, the UNs special rapporteur on torture, told the BMJ that the report is deeply troubling.

Officials at five facilities run by the National Directorate of Security (Heart, Kandahar, Khost, Langhman, and national facility 124 in Kabul) systematically tortured detainees for the purpose of obtaining confessions and information, says the report.

Philippe Dam, acting director in Geneva of the campaign group Human Rights Watch, said that the report has done an excellent detailed job in highlighting an issue which has been going on and which troop contributing nations have been aware for a long time. He said that NATOs decision to suspend transfers of detainees to some facilities was a good one. However, far more needs to be done to end torture in Afghan prisons, he added. A first step would be for NATO to put pressure on the Afghan government to open all detention centres to full access by bodies such as the Red Cross and UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Treatment of Conflict-Related Detainees in Afghan Custody is at www. ohchr.org/documents/countries/AF/UNAMA_Detention_en.pdf. Cite this as: BMJ 2011;343:d6773
BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2011

Use of interrogation methods, including suspension, beatings, electric shock, stress positions, and threatened sexual assault, is unacceptable by any standard of international human rights law, Afghan law, and professional standards of security forces, says the report.

Other methods of torture included beatings with braided cables, electric or steel wire, and wooden sticks (particularly on the soles of the feet); kicking in the head; removal of toenails; sleep

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