A report of US military abuse of detainees in Afghanistan is deeply disturbing and those involved should be punished, the United Nations said today.
The abuse, including details of the deaths of two inmates at an Afghan detention center, took place in 2002 and emerged from a nearly 2,000-page file of US Army investigators, according to a New York Timesreport on Friday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, speaking before leaving on a visit to the US yesterday, said he was shocked and was demanding action against the culprits as well as custody of Afghan prisoners and supervision of US military searches.
The special representative of the UN secretary-general in Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, said the abuse reported in the New York Timeswas unacceptable and an affront to everything the international community stood for.
"The gravity of these abuses calls for the punishment of all those involved in such inexcusable crimes, as demanded by President Karzai," Mr Arnault said in a statement.
Mr Arnault said steps taken since 2002 to eradicate mistreatment and improve conditions should be made public. Complaints that continue to be made of arbitrary arrest and detention without charge should be fully addressed, he said.
The United States commands a foreign force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, most of them American, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting militant leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
The United States is holding more than 500 prisoners from its war on terrorism at the Guantanamo Bay naval base on Cuba. Many of them were detained in Afghanistan after the Taliban overthrow in late 2001. US forces are also believed to be holding several hundred Afghans in Afghanistan.
US officials have characterised incidents of prisoner abuse at Bagram in 2002 as isolated problems that were thoroughly investigated, the newspaper said. Two army interrogators have been reprimanded and seven soldiers have been charged, it said.