By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BAGRAM, Afghanistan – Representatives of the US military recently divulged its designs to remove and re-locate non-Afghan prisoners presently detained in Bagram Air Base.  Bagram Air Base signifies the United States’ controversial detention facility outside the capital  city of Kabul.  Since 2001, the US military has utilized Bagram Air Base to hold suspected enemy combatants, persons classified as terrorists, and other alleged malefactors.  Numerous human rights issues have been invoked since the transformation of the Air Base into a prison.  Among the most significant international law violations charged are the torture of Bagram inmates and the indiscriminate abduction and subsequent captivity of persons with unconfirmed combatant status from countries surrounding Afghanistan.

Vice-Admiral Robert Harward of Joint Task Force 435, overseer of detainees and operations concerning their imprisonment, stated that Bagram contains only a small number of non-Afghan detainees.  There are supposedly only approximately thirty to sixty foreign nationals held in Bagram.  The US military has also claimed that it is currently coordinating with the native countries of the non-Afghan detainees.  These negotiations aim to deliver non-Afghan inmates back to the legal structures of their respective home nations.

The decision to  release all non-Afghan detainees is said to have formed from Afghanistan’s requests, for they did not desire to manage persons from other states when the Afghan government assumed control of the prison.  Prior to the recent decision to ultimately relinquish control of Bagram to Afghanistan, the US military had sole rule over its operations.  However, by the end of 2010, the US military hopes to transfer the responsibility of running the prison to the Afghan government.  While Afghanistan will possess control of the institution,the US military will retain some minimal involvement.

In late 2009, the US military announced myriad reforms pertinent to the management of the Bagram Air Base.  Following the completion of expansion and renovation of the prison, it was announced that greater transparency and regard for rights would be implemented into its system.  The Afghan government will be charged with fulfilling these promises, particularly as they regard the non-Afghan nationals.  Although negotiations to transfer foreign nationals have gone underway, the ultimate fate of non-Afghan detainees, as a general matter, remains to be determined.

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – US to ‘transfer Bagram detainees’ – 27 April 2010

Common Dreams – US to “transfer Bagram detainees’… – 28  April 2010

NPR – Rights Groups Descry U.S. Stand on Bagram Detainees – 15 September 2009