BBC News Asia
20 January 2013 Last updated at 17:10 GMT
UN report: Torture in Afghan prisons is 'widespread'
The United Nations says torture in Afghan prisons continues to be widespread
despite its recommendations in a similar report in 2011.
More than half of the 635 detainees interviewed by UN investigators said they
had been ill-treated or tortured.
The Afghan government says the claims are exaggerated, the BBC's Quentin
Sommerville in Kabul says.
Nato's force in Afghanistan, Isaf, has suspended the transfer of detainees to
facilities named in the report.
The report, by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama),
focused on detainees in facilities run by both national and local police forces
and the intelligence services, the NDS, between October 2011 and October 2012.
Impunity charge
It identified 14 methods of torture and ill-treatment practices, including
beatings, a threat of execution and sexual abuse. Some were given electric
shocks to extract confessions or obtain information.
The number of incidents in police custody had risen from 35% to 43% compared
with the previous 12 month period; although NDS facilities had seen a fall from
46% to 34% over the same period.
Unama said that, although the government had implemented some recommendations
in its 2011 report, from training to inspections and directives, there appeared
to be little follow up in the pursuit of offenders.
"Unama found a persistent lack of accountability for perpetrators of torture
with few investigations and no prosecutions for those responsible," said
Georgette Gagnon, Unama's Director of Human Rights.
"Without deterrents and disincentives to use torture, including a robust,
independent, investigation process, criminal prosecutions and courts'
consistent refusal to accept confessions gained through torture, Afghan
officials have no incentive to stop torture."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has insisted that prisoner custody is a matter of
Afghan sovereignty and has demanded the US hand over any Afghans it is holding,
our correspondent says.
But Isaf commanders have warned that given the current high levels of abuse,
that cannot possibly take place any time soon, he adds.
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