CIA runs detention center in Afghanistan: newspaper

Xinhuanet | January 22, 2006

The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been running a detention center near the Afghan capital of Kabul, an Afghan newspaper reported Sunday.

"Detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison revealed that they had been kept and interrogated by CIA officials at prison near Kabul," daily Cheragh quoted the New York-based Human Rights Watch as reporting.

Based on eight detainees admission who were kept at the U.S. detention center near Kabul between 2003 and 2004, the Watchdog reported that Afghan and American warders were not dressed in military uniform but in plain cloths, which indicates the jail is run by the CIA.

"The warders applied maltreatment to the detainees and almost all eight detainees who spent time in the prison told the same thing," the daily added, quoting the rights watchdog.

The prisoners disclosed that the warders tied them in rope in small cells and deprived them of sleep for several hours besides sinking their heads in cold water and creating noise at their cells through loudspeakers.

Some 400 Afghans reportedly have been languishing in 23 U.S. army detention centers in Afghanistan, with majority of them in Bagram, the headquarters of American troops 50 km north of Kabul.

Some of the detainees after interrogation are being taken to the U.S. naval detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

At least two Afghans have died at the U.S. military custody in Bagram since 2002. Enditem