Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early decades of the 21st Century 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Afghanistan.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in
Afghanistan. Some of these links may
lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even
false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to
verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Afghan
Officials Admit Torturing Detainees Sharon Behn, Voice of America VOA News, Islamabad, 12 February
2013 www.voanews.com/content/afghan-officials-admit-torturing-detainees/1601830.html [accessed 13 Jan
2014] www.voanews.com/east-asia/afghan-officials-admit-torturing-detainees [accessed 16
February 2020] An Afghan
presidential investigative commission has confirmed that Afghan police and
security officials are torturing detainees, despite promises of reform. But
the head of the commission denies statements by the United Nations that
torture and ill-treatment are systematic in Afghan detention centers. Commission head Abdul
Qadir Adalatkhwa
acknowledges that almost half of the people they interviewed said they had
been tortured and even more said they had no access to defense lawyers. He
says members of the delegation confirm the existence of torture,
mistreatment, beatings and threats that occurred mostly during the arrest of
detainees or during interrogations. But Adalatkhwa says his commission's two-week fact-finding
mission did not find evidence to support a recent U.N. report saying there
were systematic, widespread abuses of conflict-related detainees in Afghan
custody. The U.N. report,
released in January, concluded that torture was an institutional policy or
practice and not just used by a few individuals in isolated cases. It says U.N.
interviewers had seen injuries, marks and scars consistent with torture and
ill-treatment, including prolonged beatings, electric shocks and hangings by
the wrists. ***
ARCHIVES *** 'Signs
Of Torture': Two Afghan Journalists Severely Beaten After Detention By
Taliban Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, 9 September 2021 gandhara.rferl.org/a/afghan-journalists-beaten-by-taliban/31452420.html?ltflags=mailer [accessed 9
September 2021] Two journalists for
Kabul-based newspaper Etilaat-e Roz were detained
by Taliban militants while covering a protest for women's rights on September
7. They were released hours later covered in bruises and barely able to walk.
RFE/RL's Radio Azadi spoke to the newspaper's
founder about the beatings and the dangers faced by journalists trying to
cover the new Taliban regime. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Afghanistan U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/afghanistan/
[accessed 2 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) reported security forces continued to use excessive force, including torturing and beating civilians. Despite legislation prohibiting these acts, independent monitors continued to report credible cases of torture in detention centers. According to local media, lawyers representing detainees in detention centers alleged in July that torture remained commonplace and that detainees were regularly questioned using torture methods. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Physical
Conditions: Overcrowding in prisons continued to be a serious, widespread
problem. On April 21, the general director of prisons stated the country’s
prisons suffered from widespread abuses, including corruption, lack of
attention to detainees’ sentences, sexual abuse of underage prisoners, and
lack of access to medical care. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES UNAMA, the AIHRC,
and other observers reported arbitrary and prolonged detention frequently
occurred throughout the country, including persons being detained without
judicial authorization. Authorities often did not inform detainees of the
charges against them. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/afghanistan/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 14 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? Further reports
emerged of summary executions of civilians who were targeted in raids by
special forces units of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), and
so-called “campaign forces” supported by the US Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA). For example, in August 2019, a unit of the Khost
Protection Force militia summarily executed 11 civilians in Kulalgo, of Zurmat District.
Protests against such raids prompted the resignation of NDS Director Mohammed
Masoon Stanekzai in
September. ALP
commander running private jail, torture cell in Wardak Pajhwok Afghan News, 2 July
2015 www.pajhwok.com/en/2015/07/02/alp-commander-running-private-jail-torture-cell-wardak [accessed 25 Aug
2015] Sharifullah Hotak, a member of the provincial council, said ALP
Commander Karim was involved in torturing local residents in his private
jail, forcing many families to flee homes for other areas. He said the latest
incident took place about a week ago, when the commander and his gunmen
snatched a farmer, Habibullah, from a vehicle en route to the district from Kabul and took him to the
private jail. “After his arrest
by commander Karim, Habibullah was mercilessly
beaten and knocked unconscious for three hours. Later gunmen of the commander
penetrated a hot steel rod into Habibullah’s nose
and genitals.” Torture
on wane in Afghan detention centres but still
widespread Sune Engel Rasmussen,
The Guardian, Kabul, 25 February 2015 www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/25/torture-wane-afghan-detention-centres-still-widespread [accessed 31 March
2015] Sediq Sediqqi, an interior ministry spokesman, said the
government would intensify its efforts to “totally eradicate” the use of
torture. “We will investigate and look into the findings of the report, and
prosecute those who have committed these crimes,” he said. However, he added:
“Torture is not systematic, it’s only committed by a
few people.” The torture
experienced by prisoners included severe whippings with cables, pipes and
other objects, full-body beatings, twisting of genitals and threats of
execution and sexual assault. Detainees said they had nails pulled out and
were forced to drink excessive amounts of water, put in stress positions and
subjected to electric shock. After their interrogation, some detainees were
forced to video-record confessions and sign statements denying that they had
been coerced. In 2013, following
the last UN detention report, Nato revised and
reduced the number of Afghan facilities they would transfer prisoners to.
Yet, for the UN’s recent report, 36 prisoners said they had been tortured in Afghan
detention centres after being detained by
international forces or in operations overseen by international forces. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] AFGHANISTAN TORTURE,
EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS, AND ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES - Police impunity
in 2014 extended to other crimes against civilians: in April, Meena Intizar, a poet, claimed that she had fled Kandahar city
after one of Raziq’s deputies, Abdul Wadood Sarhadi Jajo, threatened to rape and kill her and family members
after she filed a complaint that Jajo’s forces
raided her home and stole electronics, jewelry, and money. Jajo had been accused previously of sexual assault, but
was never prosecuted. In May, he was killed in a suicide attack. The Afghan Local Police (ALP)—a network of
local defense forces established largely by the US military in cooperation
with the Afghan government—continued to be responsible for serious human
rights violations, including extrajudicial executions. During an offensive against the Taliban in
August in Zhare district, Kandahar, an ALP unit
under Brigadier General Raziq’s command reportedly
captured and executed six Kuchi nomads it accused
of working with the Taliban. In June, ALP members under Commander Abdullah
summarily executed three villagers in Andar
district following a clash with Taliban forces in the area. According to
UNAMA, at time of writing there had been no accountability for the killings. Government
Panel in Afghanistan Confirms Widespread Torture of Detainees Douglas Schorzman, The New York Times, 11 February 2013 www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/world/asia/afghan-panel-confirms-torture-of-detainees.html?_r=0 [accessed 12
February 2013] At a news
conference in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, the panel’s director said its
inquiry had confirmed evidence that nearly half of the 284 prisoners
interviewed in three provinces had been tortured during arrest or
questioning. The inquiry also found that many of the detainees never had
access to legal defense. But even though the
official, Abdul Qadir Adalatkhwa,
noted that the findings were serious, he insisted that there was no evidence
of “systematic torture.” UN
report exposes torture of Afghan detainees Russia Today RT News
Network, 21 January, 2013 rt.com/news/new-un-report-torture-385/ [accessed 23 January
2013] A United Nations
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) report released on Sunday
underlined the abuse of ‘conflict-related detainees’ across 89 detention
facilities in 30 provinces from October 2011 to October 2012, many of whom
have been relocated to multiple Afghan detention camps by foreign
governments. Extensive interviews
revealed that 326 – more than half – of the 635 detainees consulted had
experienced ‘ill-treatment and torture’. The interviews also revealed that
torture was still a systemic problem in the prisons, and that incidents of
torture in Afghan National Police facilities have actually increased over the
past year. Those who suffered
at the hands of authorities revealed their shocking firsthand experiences to
interviewers, with 105 of the cases involving those classified as children
under international law. One detainee from
Farah, western Afghanistan, reported to the UN that he was laid on the
ground, as two individuals sat on his feet and head. The third took a pipe,
and started beating him with it, saying “you are with Taliban and this is
what you deserve.” A 16-year-old boy
gave a harrowing account to UNAMA, saying that “if I did not confess that I
am a Taliban member, then the last resort would be pulling down my trousers
and pushing a bottle into my anus… He asked the other interrogator to bring
the bottle and then pull my trousers down…I realized that I could not do
anything else except to accept what the interrogators wanted me to admit.” Another spoke to
interviewers of how he was handcuffed behind his back: “…fabric was very
tightly around and under my arms and [they] suspended me from a mulberry
tree. They did this for long periods of time until I would lose
consciousness. This happened every night for six days or so… Around three
times a foreign delegation, composed of American military, I think, came to
check the Hawza, but each time they came I was
hidden.” There were further
accounts of detainees being hung from the ceiling by their wrists, beaten
with objects such as wooden sticks, cables and rifle butts, being shocked
with electricity until they passed out, their genitals being twisted and
beaten, and death threats. Karzai
calls for prison torture investigation Ali M Latifi, Al Jazeera, 22 Jan 2013 www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/01/201312211464384935.html [accessed 23 January
2013] "People say
they were beaten, but where are the bruises? If we rip out people's
fingernails, then show the scars. Prove it," the official said, adding
that the NDS only detains "the enemies of Afghanistan." "When people
manage to speak to them alone, the stories change. They are looking to defend
themselves, so they make up these false stories." The official argued
that the 635 detainees interviewed by the UN were duped by a "welcoming
war" of words by critics of the Afghan government, an increasingly
common narrative in Kabul. These doubts were
echoed by Aimal Faizi, a
presidential spokesman. "While the Afghan government takes very
seriously the allegations made in the UN report, we also question the
motivations behind this report and the way it was conducted," he said. When asked about
the claim in the report that "all tortured detainees were taken out of
their cells... and they were transferred to another building inside the same
compound to hide them," the NDS official said countless groups have
observed the agency's practices. "Anyone we interrogate, we document it
all. Everything we've done is in writing." Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 15 January 2013] Ten years after
Taliban rule, Afghanistan’s rights situation remains extremely poor. Armed
groups routinely engage in extortion and violence against communities, while
the Taliban continues to conduct attacks that indiscriminately or
intentionally harm civilians. The situation for women’s rights is
particularly bad, with threats and attacks by insurgents on women leaders,
schoolgirls, and girls’ schools, and police arrests of women for “moral
crimes” such as running away from forced marriage or domestic violence. Plans
by the international community to decrease aid in coming years raise the risk
that a bad human rights situation could become worse. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 ARBITRARY
ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS, TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT The National
Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan’s intelligence service, continued
to arbitrarily arrest and detain suspects, denying
them access to a lawyer, their families, the courts or other external bodies.
The NDS faced credible allegations of torturing detainees and operating
secret detention facilities. NATO ceased transferring detainees to Afghan
forces after a UN report, issued in October, documented the systematic use of
torture by NDS officers. According to the report, prisoners had been tortured
in 47 NDS and police detention facilities across 22 provinces. In August, family
members of an Afghan man who had been detained by the NDS in Kabul for
allegedly selling counterfeit currency told Amnesty International he had been
arrested by the NDS in April and tortured into making a confession. The
detainee, who cannot be identified for security reasons, was reportedly
punched and kicked until he vomited blood and lost consciousness. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=afghanistan+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 25 December
2018] ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human
Rights Reports » 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78868.htm [accessed 15 January
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78868.htm [accessed 2 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, there were reports of abuses. For example,
human rights organizations reported that local authorities in Herat, Helmand,
Badakhshan, and other locations continued to routinely torture and abuse
detainees. Torture and abuse consisted of pulling out fingernails and
toenails, burning with hot oil, beatings, sexual humiliation, and sodomy. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil
Liberties: 6 Status: Not Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/afghanistan [accessed 15 January
2013] LONG URL
ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 11 May
2020] In a prevailing
climate of impunity, government ministers as well as warlords in some
provinces sanction widespread abuses by the police, military, and
intelligence forces under their command, including arbitrary arrest and
detention, torture, extortion, and extrajudicial killings. The Afghan
Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), which was formed in 2002 and
focuses on raising awareness of human rights issues as well as monitoring and
investigating abuses, receives hundreds of complaints of rights violations
each year. In addition to the abuses by security forces, reported violations
have involved land theft, displacement, kidnapping, child trafficking,
domestic violence, and forced marriage. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century- Afghanistan
", http://gvnet.com/torture/ Afghanistan.htm, [accessed
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