Monday, December 03, 2012
Kabul (BNA) BNA political analyst writes:
Recently the British defense minister ratified a document according to which the process of transmission of Afghan prisoners by international forces to Afghan government is suspended for unlimited time.
The UK authorities among them the defense minister of that country claimed that the prisoners in Afghan prisons were imposed to the serious threat of mistreatment.
This suspicion has been expressed in a time, while Afghanistan has already signed strategic deals with a number of countries among them US and UK during the current year.
Signing such important documents didn’t come abruptly but took a long time and after discussing all relevant issues precisely the documents were ready to be sign by relevant parties. One of the issues which caused the delay of signing the deal was the way of handing over the responsibility of Bagram Prison to Afghan side.
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan persisted that the international forces have no right of running prison and detention of Afghan citizens. The stand of Afghanistan on solving the issue was so serious that Hamid Karzai the president of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan considered the continuation of such a situation as a violation to Afghan national sovereignty.
Finally, the American government accepting the conditions put forward by Afghanistan provided the ground for signing strategic cooperation deal.
After that important event, the leadership of national defense ministry and general commander of international forces signed a document on handing over the responsibilities of Bagram prison to Afghan security forces and the process of transmission of the prisoners practically started. A number of Afghan national army troops, named military police received special trainings and Afghan government committed to honor all international standards and rights of the prisoners. The management of Afghan security organs in the prison was so efficient that some commanders of foreign forces praised it.
But recently, statements have been heard that talk about on non handing over the Afghan prisoners to Afghan side which caused concern of Kabul and considers any limitation in that regard as a violation to its national sovereignty.
As the spokesman of the president in his latest statement has said, “Owning prison and detention of Afghans by foreigners is a practice against national sovereignty of Afghanistan” and adding that the stand of Afghan government in that regard is clear, that is no foreign countries have the right to have prison in Afghanistan and keeping Afghan citizens in detention.
He added, the problem of detention of Afghan citizens by international forces stationed in the country still exists. President Karzai has sent a letter to president Obama in that regard.
On the other hand, suspending the transmission of Afghan prisoners by international forces to Afghan security organs came in a time, the Afghan government is already established a special commission for assessing the cases of the prisoners while earlier there were a number of prisoners who were behind the bars of the prison without having any file and their rights were violated. Assessing the cases of the prisoners by Afghan relevant institutions was so fair and rapid that so far a number of them proved to be innocent and released from the prison.
Therefore, in presence of such a fair judicial system, accusing of Afghanistan to mistreatment against prisoners is nothing but a pretext that should be ended.
Written By: Khalil Minawi BNA Director
