U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered the Guantanamo military prison closed within the year, but what about the detention centre in Bagram, the U.S. military base in Afghanistan, which has an equally murky legal status ?
An estimated 600 detainees are held there, without any charge and many for over six years, rights activists say. That makes it more than twice the number held in Guantanamo, and according to military personnel who know both facilities, it is much more spartan and with lesser privileges as this report in the New York Times says.
Few detainees have had access to lawyers, and there was no question ever of allowing journalists or human rights advocates into the facility. I lived on the military base for four weeks as part of a group of journalists covering the war in 2002 and we had no clue where the prison was located, and we would keep guessing which one of the cavernous Soviet-built aircraft hangars the detainees were kept in.
Since then, the New York Times says, the population at the Bagram prison has expanded substantially, especially after the Bush administration largely halted the movement of prisoners to the Cuban facility in September 2004, making the Afghan centre the preferred alternative.
Indeed there is a U.S. plan to expand the prison complex to hold 1,100 “enemy combatants” - prisoners who cannot see lawyers, have no trials and never see any evidence there may be against them, Britain’s Telegraph said. The one concession that has happened over the past year is that every Monday families gather in a Red Cross compound in Kabul for a glimpse by live video of brothers, sons and husbands who have disappeared into the feared detention centre in Bagram.
The U.S. military says the detainees are Taliban and al Qaeda fighters who must be kept off the battlefield. But human rights lawyers say the prison also holds scores of innocent people, many seized after tip-offs from feuding rivals in a viciously warring tribal society, as the Telegraph story says.
The question of Bagram becomes more vexed given that the new administration plans to step up combat operations in Afghanistan, which means there will be new waves of detainees.
Obama’s team is silent on its plans for Bagram, and there seems to be little likelihood of change at the prison, the Telegraph quotes Joanne Mariner, a lawyer and terrorism expert at Human Rights Watch, as saying. “Right now they are expanding it, they are building a new facility. Clearly closing it isn’t on the agenda.”
One more challenge for Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, as he heads into the region next week? Holbrooke faces a “dim and dismal” situation in both countries as Bruce Riedel, a South Asia expert, said in an interview with the Council for Foreign Relations. Any opening to the Afghan people or even the Pakistanis for that matter, would have to answer the question : how do you justify holding scores of people without any recourse to justice ?
[Reuters pictures of a protest against Guantanamo prison in Washington and U.S. soldiers at the Bagram air base]
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Rajeev, Anitha , Global Watcher
and @$$ hole Ali,
I read your threads and Rajeev dont worry, this Idiot Ali in his true spirit of being a dumb pakistani just said some thing in his last comment what we have been trying to prove. He said “Long live LeT” and this is what International community should look at. That terrorist are getting ideological, and fundamental support in pakistan.
- Posted by PrithvirajMumbai Attack investigations have established beyond doupt, Pakistan’s involvement in the attacks. Instead of being ashamed this @$$hole is shouting slogans. That I believe is nothing but a desperation and frustation which is causing this self delusion. Their economy is not going, country in not going anywhere in terms of growth, education etc, The same Taliban they trained and now are now fighting against, to please the west is ready to bite them in their bums. So to sum it all up the state is at the verge of collapse.
They talk about sharia law, but themselves dont know what sharia law says. They dont know that law proposed by groups like Taliban will pull them back into destitution and stone ages. In fact what is interesting is intially Taliban was welcomed in Afganistan as well, till the time people realise what their true face was. So soon who propose fundamentalism and sharia law in pakistan will have to face the music. Pakistan is a sinking ship, and all we need to do is to distance ourselves from them.
Ali,
It is too bad, you were not in the Lal Masjid. Maybe you could have defended your Sharia ideals and martyred yourself.
- Posted by Global WatcherAli’s “A good start would be for india to give Kashmiris there rights which have been violated for the last 60years. They have been living under brutal OCCUPATION.
———-Ali: Yes let us start it. So who are the Kashmiris? What about 500,000 Kashmiri Pundits who left Kashmir bec. of terrorism (professional killers of Pakistan). Someone has to fill in the vacuum and that is allegedly similar # of Indian soldiers. What about the genocide of kashmiris? Kashmiri Hindus were asked to choose between Convert, Flee or Perish. “agar Kashmir me rahna hei, to allah ho akbar kahna hei” slogan was shouted at that time. Kashmiris in J&K have more rights than any other Indian. Am I right that Kashmir is not a synonym for Muslim? Your feeling that Kasmiri are closer to Pakistanis lacks your knowledge of history (include Pundits) and the current reality (they hate you bec. of terrorism you imposed on them and they can see POK).
Now, if you scrub your brain with a sand paper and rub your eyes, give a splash of cold water and allow yourself to sink into the history from a neutral source-rather than a rotten propaganda site, you will not sound so inhuman and pathetic.
Compare what India and Pakistan have done for Kashmiris. The name Azad Kashmir is such a bogus title since its PM is from Rawalpindi Punjab. High positions are held by Pakistanis, if I believe a Kashmiri from POK (now in Malaysia) who was complaining over a pro-Pak blog and was saying India has done a lot good work for Kashmiris and Kashmiris in India have better opportunities (Eduction and jobs), the money India is spending on J&K. While India has article 370 giving special status to J&K (including non-Kashmiris not able to buy property in Kashmir) and Pak allowed several thousand non-Kashmiri families to settle in POK. Pakistan destroyed the original demographics by ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pundits and asking for plebiscite by waging proxy war called Jihad in the name of Kashmiris. How about Mangla Dam story of POK-How many Kashmiris were thrown out of POK (lost jobs in the wake of the construction of Mangla Dam). Now Dam supplies 65% of the Pak electricity needs, but the so-called Azad Kashmir does not get any royalty. Azad Kashmir’s budget is just 20% of what Pakistan’s earns from the electricity produced at Mangla dam!!! Pak is leaching POK’s resources.
Oh I forgot, one thing Pak has done for Indian Kashmir is to give them terrorism-without-referendum and if I start pulling out what these coward Jihadis deeds towards Indian Kashmiris, you will never ever visit Reuter again. POK has camps for training your “long live” LeT bros and other —-gps for killing innocents all around. I know that you don’t care what LeTs etc do to Indians but if you have enough fire in your belly tell your LeT bros that they killed 40 Muslims in Mumbai attack, way above the % Muslim population. Terrorism is very secular that way, so do not be so sure when you walk around.
Here is what 3 LeT cowards did to a pregnant woman that Anitha mentioned (I expect you say oh no it was all implanted).
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/indi a-news/pregnant-woman-in-doda-accuses-la shkar-militants-of-gang-raping-her-repea tedly_100151075.html
If you cannot assimilate all this, just read this: Independent Kashmir is impossible. Kashmiris in India are better off as a special status than having a bogus Independence you have given them by implanting a Punjabi PM for Azad Kashmir.
- Posted by rajeevAli,
Did you hear yourself talk? I remember that Muslim countries also stood by watching white-drunk-not-so-sure-if Muslims-so-we’ll-wait-and-see-if-they-ar e Bosnians get slaughtered too. AND If I remember correctly it wasn’t a Muslim country that stopped the Serbs and saved the Bosnian Muslims…who was it, then? hmmmm…oh yes, Uncle Sam i.e. USA.
And if I recall correctly, Egypt had their borders shut during the assault and the Arab world couldn’t get one damn statement out to condemn the bombings.
Sharia Law? I’m sorry, are you sleeping through the news about the Nut jobs and traitors running amok in Swat who want Sharia Law, cutting people’s heads in butcher shops and banning girls education in schools, and stopped all NGOs including polio vaccinations? You Want That? You rather be a Jahal like those Lal Masjid folks? Did they really appeal to you?
Do you even know what Sharia Law is? Jinnah wanted a Secular nation. Not some messed up Wahabi/Salafi/Deobandi/Nasibi (they’re all Kharjites) interpretation leading the country calling every second person Kaffir causing sectarian strife and deaths of minorities.
As a brother Pakistani, I suggest some “critical thinking”. You’re angry at the world’s double standards. So am I. However look at home first. Do you see our citizens committing the same stuff we’re accusing the West of? Yea, they are, and maybe worse.
Do you think our guys who go into Kashmir have been great for the Kashmiris and they all absolutely love us? Think again. We’ve done some horrid stuff, man. Like blowing away an entire family, including women and kids, if one guy is found to be an informant. The 3 rapists Anitha mentions…yea its possible. And you don’t want to hear about the ‘mujahids’(they shouldn’t be called that) in 47/48 who went into Kashmir…
Challenge your perceptions, brother.
- Posted by SafPlease, somebody hide me from Ali. He scares me.
- Posted by Saf@Ali - “Just now what hapened in GAZA where si the civilised world…Go to HELL it is essence of time that there is sharia law in all Muslims lands”
Now we know what law muslim lands follow..Hamas govt goons in Gaza abducted the food, medicines and other aid items from UN when it was being distributed to sufferring and poor people..
- Posted by AnithaAnother news - The music and film culture in peshawar is completely shut down..
Yet another one - Girl students of SWAT are now migrating in large numbers to other places to persue basic education..
so much for your sharia law
Speaking of Long life to LET…a women in kashmir has mustured courage to file a complaint againt 3 Let member who raped her thrice when she was a 5 months pregnant !! There aremany people who havn’t sought the help of police fearing brutal reaction from Let there..
- Posted by AnithaSo Ali its for uninformed dogs like you to stop barking.
and not the sane and secular voices..
Try to read news rather than listening news from a mulla you idiot.