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Freed Afghans say they were abused by Americans
SANGESAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- More than 30 Afghans seized by American troops in a 3 a.m. raid on a village security post say they were kicked and abused at a U.S. Army detention centre before being freed four days later.
"If they gave us all of Afghanistan now, this wouldn't make up for this insult," said one of the bruised and angry men, Fida Mohammad, 35.
Another man said it was fortunate his armed security team didn't react defensively to the U.S. force.
"If we reacted, there might have been a firefight, and many people might have been killed," said Ghousullah, 22.
Maj. Ralph Mills, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said any injuries could have happened when the men were apprehended in last Sunday's raid.
"Some of the people may have resisted when being subdued, and they may have been bruised in the process," Mills said Friday. "We don't have anything that suggests that anyone was mistreated while in captivity."
The U.S. military command has been reluctant to discuss its detention centre at a U.S. airport base outside Kandahar, 40 kilometres east of here. Scores of Taliban and al-Qaida terrorist suspects are held there.
The Afghans' accounts of mistreatment were similar to those in February from another group, seized on Jan. 23 when U.S. special forces raided a compound in Uruzgan province and witnesses reported 21 Afghans killed. Men captured in that raid said that some lost consciousness and suffered fractured ribs, loosened teeth and swollen noses. At the time, the U.S. command denied that those detainees had been abused.
On Tuesday U.S. military officials said it had been determined the men seized on Sunday were neither Taliban nor al-Qaida members. On Wednesday, however, one military spokesman said the men were still being "evaluated" while another, Brig.-Gen. John W. Rosa, denied they were detainees at all.
The men were not released from the detention centre until late Thursday morning.
The dozens of militiamen, loyal to a member of the new Afghan cabinet, lived in the compound and maintained security on the main east-west regional road here under provisional security arrangements with the interim Afghan government.
Rosa said the raid was carried out because weapons were known to be in the compound and Afghans working with U.S. forces "did not know who was in that compound."
Afghan officials said anyone who asked would have been told who they were.
"Someone gave the Americans wrong information, that there were al-Qaida and Taliban based here," said Mohammad Sharif Khan, 64, chief of the security force.
He quickly saw the raiding party was American and ordered his men, aroused from sleep, to co-operate, Sharif Khan said Friday. The U.S. force, which had overpowered four guards outside, then drove off with 31 detainees, the U.S. military later reported. Sharif Khan said they numbered 34, all of them bound, half of them barefoot. No shots were fired at the compound.
At the airport detention centre, hoods were pulled over their heads and they were "thrown down" face first on rocky ground, Sharif Khan said. "Then one person took you by the head and another by the feet, and they were pounding on your back with their foot." He had a freshly bruised arm.
Several other men also told of being kicked. All were treated the same way, their chief said.
"My ribs had been broken before and so they were weak," said Fida Mohammad. "They picked me up and threw me down on the rocks. It was painful. I couldn't rest on my chest. When I moved they kicked me." He had a fresh black eye.
The Americans next shaved their beards, which their Muslim faith obliges them to grow. Their heads also were shaved and they said they were left completely naked for a period.
Later, held in wooden-barred "cages," they were at times punished for talking by being made to kneel with hands behind their heads for long periods, and were kicked again when they moved, the men said.
Their account provided a rare glimpse into the secretive detention centre, where they saw Arabs, Chechens, Sudanese and other suspected al-Qaida members.
They said 18 of them were kept in a plastic sheet-topped cage about three metres by nine metres, with desert dust blowing in. They had no exercise and no toilet facility other than a bucket for use in the crowded space, they said, and were fed bread, cookies and potato chips.
They were interrogated repeatedly on Sunday and Monday, but then the Americans realized they were not Taliban or al-Qaida, Sharif Khan said. Still they were held for more than an additional two days before being released.
The freed men said they were promised a meeting Saturday with American officers, Kandahar provincial officials and elders from this area to discuss their ordeal.
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