- Two prisoners who died while being held for interrogation
at the US military base in Afghanistan had apparently been beaten, according
to a military pathologist's report. A criminal investigation is now under
way into the deaths which have both been classified as homicides.
-
- The deaths have led to calls for an inquiry into what
interrogation techniques are being used at the base where it is believed
the al-Qaida leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is now also being held. Former
prisoners at the base claim that detainees are chained to the ceiling,
shackled so tightly that the blood flow stops, kept naked and hooded and
kicked to keep them awake for days on end.
-
- The two men, both Afghans, died last December at the
US forces base in Bagram, north of Kabul, where prisoners have been held
for questioning. The autopsies found they had suffered "blunt force
injuries" and classified both deaths as homicides.
-
- A spokesman for the Pentagon said yesterday it was not
possible to discuss the details of the case because of the proceeding investigation.
If the investigation finds that the prisoners had been unlawfully killed
during interrogation, it could lead to both civil and military prosecutions.
He added that it was not clear whether only US personnel had had access
to the men.
-
- One of the dead prisoners, known only as Dilawar, died
as a result of "blunt force injuries to lower extremities complicating
coronary artery disease", according to the death certificate signed
by Major Elizabeth Rouse, a pathologist with the Washington-based Armed
Forces Institute of Pathology, which operates under the auspices of the
defence department. The dead man was aged 22 and was a farmer and part-time
taxi-driver. He was said to have had an advanced heart condition and blocked
arteries.
-
- Chris Kelly, a spokesman for the institute, said yesterday
that their pathologists were involved in all cases on military bases where
there were unusual or suspicious deaths. He was not aware of any other
homicides of prisoners held since September 11. He said that the definition
of homicide was "death resulting from the intentional or grossly reckless
behaviour of another person or persons" but could also encompass "self-defence
or justifiable killings".
-
- The death certificates for the men have four boxes on
them giving choices of "natural, accident, suicide, homicide".
The Pentagon said yesterday that the choice of "homicide" did
not necessarily mean that the dead person had been unlawfully killed. There
was no box which would indicate that a pathologist was uncertain how a
person had died.
-
- It is believed that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, described
as the number three in al-Qaida, is being interrogated at Bagram. He is
said to have started providing information about the possible whereabouts
of Osama bin Laden whom he is said to have met in Pakistan last month.
Most al-Qaida suspects are being held outside the US which means that they
are not entitled to access to the US judicial system.
-
- Two former prisoners at the base, Abdul Jabar and Hakkim
Shah, told the New York Times this week that they recalled seeing Dilawar
at Bagram. They said that they had been kept naked, hooded and shackled
and were deprived of sleep for days on end. Mr Shah said that American
guards kicked him to stop him falling asleep and that on one occasion he
had been kicked by a woman interrogator, while her male colleague held
him in a kneeling position.
-
- The commander of the coalition forces in Afghanistan,
General Daniel McNeill, said that prisoners were made to stand for long
periods but he denied that they were chained to the ceiling. "Our
interrogation techniques are adapted," he said.
-
- "They are in accordance with what is generally accepted
as interrogation techniques, and if incidental to the due course of this
investigation, we find things that need to be changed, we will certainly
change them."
-
- In January, in his state of the union address, President
George Bush announced that "3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested
in many countries" and "many others have met a different fate"
and "are no longer a problem to the United States".
-
- The other death being investigated is that of Mullah
Habibullah, the brother of a former Taliban commander. His death certificate
indicates that he died of a pulmonary embolism, or a blood clot in the
lung.
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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