Allegations of Abuse in Afghanistan

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-05-12 09:50pm

CBC wrote:KABUL - American military officials are investigating allegations that an Afghan police officer was stripped naked and beaten by U.S. soldiers, according to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

The alleged abuse occurred at a U.S. base in Gardez, about 100 kilometres south of Kabul, the Embassy said in a statement issued Wednesday.

Embassy officials say they learned of the allegations through the media.

"To the best of our knowledge this is the first time anyone in the military chain of command or the United States Embassy has heard of this alleged mistreatment.

"We are not aware of the existence of any photos of the alleged incident," said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in a statement.

The New York Times quoted former Afghan police colonel Sayed Nabi Siddiqui, who said he was deprived of sleep, sexually abused and taunted while in captivity.

Siddiqui told the newspaper he was detained on July 15 after he reported incidents of police corruption to U.S. soldiers. He says he was accused of being a member of the Taliban and held for about 40 days.

U.S. officials have yet to release the results of another investigation into alleged abuse in Afghanistan. Two Afghans died in December 2002 at a U.S. base in Bagram. Their autopsies showed they died of blunt force injuries.

Given everything that has surfaced regarding prisoner abuses in Iraq, I'm not surprised at all.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2004-05-12 10:29pm

Given everything that's happened the matter should certainly be investigated. The abuse certainly could have happened but with out proof of them in this case it's a bit premature to decide anything.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2004-05-12 10:37pm

Interesting, but I'm much more interested right now in the conditions in Guantanamo Bay and the state of the prisoners held there. Obviously given that the military has total control of what information gets in and out of that place, this job will be difficult and I doubt that the President wants to disclose anything about it.

GySgt. Hartman · Post by **GySgt. Hartman** » 2004-05-13 05:20am

I am sure this is just another isolated incident. That's what you get for asking US forces to help you against corruption in your police force.