Human Rights Watch 2007
News and Releases
Compiled by Kandy Ringer
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Human Rights Watch 2007 News and Releases Compiled by Kandy Ringer |
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US: Failure to Provide Justice for Afghan Victims
HRW via BBSNews - New York, February 16, 2007 -- The United States has failed to adequately investigate and prosecute numerous cases of detainee abuse by US personnel in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the sentence handed down this week against a CIA contractor convicted in the killing of an Afghan detainee in 2003, but said this was a singular exception to an otherwise poor record of accountability.
On February 13, a US federal court sentenced David Passaro, a CIA contractor found guilty of assault in the beating death of Abdul Wali at a border post on the Pakistan border in June 2003, to eight-and-a-half years in prison. Human Rights Watch called on the US government to provide accountability for several other cases of alleged abuse and killings by US forces in Afghanistan.
"No one should be above the law in Afghanistan," said Sam Zarifi, Human Rights Watch’s Asia research director. "The United States and its allies have promised to reform the rule of law and the justice system in Afghanistan, but until the US is willing to provide accountability for its own forces, these pledges are not credible."
Human Rights Watch cited numerous cases of abuse and killings in Afghanistan implicating US military and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) personnel, in which US authorities have failed to hold perpetrators responsible.
The Passaro case is similar to many other cases of alleged abuse by US soldiers in Afghanistan. According to facts presented at trial, Passaro, a CIA contractor stationed with US military forces at Asadabad airbase, subjected Wali to a "chamber of horrors," ordering military guards to keep Wali from sleeping and denying him food and water. Witnesses said that Passaro forced Wali to endure over 48 hours of interrogation and beatings, hitting Wali on the shins, elbows and wrists, and kicking Wali in the groin so hard that the blow lifted him off the ground. Witnesses said Wali begged personnel to shoot him, and before he died, was moaning "I’m dying." Throughout the ordeal, Wali denied any role in the rocket attacks. He died on his fourth day in custody.
Human Rights Watch noted that Passaro could have been charged for torture and homicide, which carry life sentences under federal law. No one else who was present during Wali’s interrogation has been prosecuted or reprimanded.
"One person going to prison is not accountability for widespread abuse," said Zarifi. "Numerous other US personnel have been implicated in detainee killings in Afghanistan, yet few have been punished – and most of those punished have received only slaps on the wrist."
Human Rights Watch said the US military had not adequately investigated numerous other cases of abuse implicating military personnel, including several killings of detainees in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003. Nor has the military sought to prosecute senior officers on the grounds of command responsibility for failing to stop abuses that they knew or should have known were occurring. The failure of accountability in Afghanistan is notable because a military unit involved in interrogations in Afghanistan in 2002 – the Army’s 519th Military Intelligence Battalion – was later sent to Iraq and implicated in infamous abuses that took place at Abu Ghraib prison.
Human Rights Watch also criticized the US Department of Justice for failing to investigate whether civilian leadership in the CIA and military committed crimes by authorizing abusive interrogations in Afghanistan. In an earlier report, Human Rights Watch documented how authorizations for abuse likely spread from Afghanistan to Iraq, after the United States invaded in 2003.
"The failure to investigate senior US officials for their role in authorizing detainee abuse is not for lack of evidence but for lack of political will," said Zarifi. "Only an independent prosecutor can mount credible investigations into detainee abuse issues, and Congress should press the administration to appoint one."
The US military continues to operate in Afghanistan without any legal framework, such as a Status of Forces Agreement with the Afghan government, and to detain hundreds of Afghans without any legal process. US forces at a minimum are obligated to treat detainees in accordance with the fundamental guarantees provided by international humanitarian law.
"The Afghan constitution, passed in 2004, does not apply in practice to Afghans held by the United States," said Zarifi. "US forces in Afghanistan are operating outside the rule of law."
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