KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. military Saturday dismissed concerns expressed by a U.N. rights investigator about allegations of prisoner abuse in Afghanistan, saying an internal investigation had found that detainees were treated humanely.
A U.N. independent expert said in a statement Thursday after a visit to Afghanistan that he was "gravely concerned" at allegations of mistreatment and even torture of local people by foreign forces in the country.
Egyptian lawyer Cherif Bassiouni gave no details of the allegations or who had made them but he is due to reveal more of his findings at the U.N. Human Rights Commission's annual six-week session in March and April.
"I am familiar with the allegations which have been made by the U.N. human rights expert," U.S. military spokesman Major Steve Wollman told a news briefing in Kabul.
"The coalition has done a complete and thorough investigation and review of detainee operations here in Afghanistan. The results of that investigation show there was not abuse in Afghanistan; there is not abuse in Afghanistan."
"Conditions that exist in our holding facilities are humane."
Wollman was referring to a Pentagon investigation of detention operations in Afghanistan in 2004 by Brigadier-General Charles H. Jacoby, which the U.S. military pledged to release but has yet to do.
"The report is still under review and once the review is complete it will be released," Wollman said.
Rights groups have criticized the U.S. government's failure to hold personnel accountable for up to six Afghan deaths in U.S. military custody in Afghanistan since U.S. forces invaded the country in 2001 and overthrew the radical Taliban regime.
In December, New York-based Human Rights Watch said this failure had created a culture of impunity and some U.S. personnel involved in abuses in Afghanistan had later been involved in similar incidents in Iraq.
The U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Command said in October it had recommended 28 people for prosecution in connection with deaths at the U.S. military's main detention center in Afghanistan, at Bagram airbase.
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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7609330
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