In its time, the US detention center at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan acquired a reputation that was almost as sinister as that of Guantanamo Bay. As with Guantanamo, there were reports of mistreatment of detainees. Early last year, Afghan investigators accused the US army guards of torturing inmates, holding them illegally without proper evidence of any crime and submitting them to humiliating body searches. Given the appalling behavior of American guards at Iraq's Abu Ghraib detention center during the US occupation of that country, it might have been imagined that the Pentagon would have learnt its lesson. In defense of the Americans and NATO, it should be said that not only did they refute the allegations but they also gave immediate access to the Afghan Human Rights Commission to check out the allegations, some of which were indeed found to be baseless. However, the low point at Bagram undoubtedly came just over a year ago, when US soldiers burnt copies of the Holy Qur'an confiscated from detainees, whom they suspected were using them to send each other coded messages. The resulting angry protests throughout the Muslim world led to dozens of deaths and considerable damage to Washington's reputation. It did not wash that an American investigation later concluded that there had been no deliberate insult to Islam. It was one more glaring example of American cultural imperialism and complete blindness to and total lack of understanding of the sacred values of countries in whose affairs Washington had decided to intervene. Now, hopefully, with the US handover of the Bagram detention center to full Afghan control, such appalling travesties will be a thing of the past. The prison is actually no longer on the vast NATO Bagram base, but for the last three years has been relocated to a new facility at Parwan, seven miles away. It was the last detention center under US control, housing around 3,000 inmates. An agreement between Washington and Kabul to finally hand over control of the jail was made a year ago, but its implementation was delayed by US concerns over what were described as 50 “high value” and “potentially dangerous” inmates. The Americans claimed that if these individuals were handed over to the Afghan authorities, they might be released and rejoin the insurgency. There could perhaps not have been a better calculated insult to the government of president Hamid Karzai, suggesting as it did that the Afghan administration has no genuine interest in winning the confrontation with the Taliban. Taken further, the US argument suggested that as more and more of the security duties in Afghanistan are handed over to government forces, there was no guarantee that these troops and police would continue to combat the insurgents. This is to ignore the reality that the violence will only end through negotiation. Today's detainee could very well turn into tomorrow's political leader. Moreover, these are Afghan prisoners held on Afghan soil. It is entirely right that those who imprison and guard them should also be Afghans. As the US and its NATO allies press ahead with their disengagement from the country by next year, it is imperative that Afghans be given back control of all their affairs, including their jails. Thus yesterday's ceremonial US handover of Parwan to the Afghan authorities was a highly significant move, which will be widely welcomed.
