U.N. Report Said to Allege Widespread Torture by Afghans

KABUL—A United Nations report due to be released on Monday alleges that widespread torture and abuse of detainees continues at Afghan police and intelligence service facilities, people who viewed the document say, creating a new hurdle for the transition of security responsibilities by the U.S.-led coalition.

The issue of detentions is highly charged in Afghanistan, with President Hamid Karzai repeatedly demanding that all detainees held by the U.S. and allies be transferred immediately to Afghan custody. Following talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington earlier this month, Mr. Karzai said that the U.S. would immediately hand over the Afghans held at the main U.S. detention center at Bagram.

But credible allegations of torture could make such transfers illegal under U.S. law and the legislation of many other coalition allies. "It is a cause for grave concern, and will certainly have repercussions," said a Western diplomat familiar with the U.N. report. Ending abuse of detainees, the diplomat added, is one of the commitments that Mr. Karzai's government reiterated last year, in exchange for continued Western aid once most U.S.-led troops go home in 2014.

The 100-page U.N. report was based on several hundred interviews across Afghanistan, with about half the interviewed detainees and former detainees alleging torture or abuse by the Afghan National Directorate of Security and Ministry of Interior, according to people who viewed the document. The Afghan government rebutted some of these allegations, and promised to investigate others, in a lengthy response attached to the document, these people say.

Overall, the U.N. report paints a bleak picture, pointing to few improvements since a similar report in October 2011 drew international attention to the issue, forcing the U.S. and allies to halt the transfer of detainees to nine Afghan facilities. At that time Western officials with knowledge of detainee treatment described some of the facilities—particularly those run by the NDS—as"nail-collecting factories" because of the brutal interrogation techniques there.

The coalition later resumed transfers to some of these facilities, saying that Afghan detention conditions have improved.

The latest U.N. report, in addition to drawing attention to continuing abuse, also points to the existence of torture at unofficial, off-the-books detention facilities that are operated by the Afghan government, and that cannot be monitored by human-rights groups, according to people who viewed the document.

Earlier this month, as the latest U.N. report was being prepared and its main findings circulated to Afghan and coalition officials, the coalition said it once again moved to halt some transfers.

Handovers to specific Afghan detention facilities were stopped as a result of "information" from human rights groups "determined to be credible," said Jamie Graybeal, the deputy public affairs officer for the International Security Assistance Force. Such information, Mr. Graybeal said, includes reports on detainee conditions provided by the U.N. and human rights groups.

These reports help "in determining whether allegations of inappropriate treatment of detainees warrant suspension of ISAF detainee transfers to affected facilities," Mr. Graybeal wrote in response to emailed questions.

Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior declined to comment officially on the new U.N. findings, although an official at the ministry denied any abuse at detention centers. A spokesman for NDS said he hadn't heard of the report and was unaware whether top NDS officials had received it.

"We don't torture detainees and we treat them in accordance to the law. Our detention centers are open, and human rights and other organizations visit the centers regularly to observe the situation and are satisfied with them," said the spokesman, Shafiqullah Taheri.

Speaking on Thursday, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, James Cunningham, said that the issue of detentions and Bagram is unlikely to affect the talks with Kabul on a bilateral security agreement that outlines what U.S. military presence will remain in Afghanistan after 2014.

"There are no allegations of human rights or other issues" either on the U.S. side or the Afghan side of the Bagram detention facility, Mr. Cunningham said. "We have obligations under our own law, and under international law, for the treatment of the prisoners that we take."

—Nathan Hodge and Habib Khan Totakhil contributed to this article.

(2013-01-20/wsj)