dinsdag 13 november 2007

Nederland en Afghanistan 145


'NATO-led forces complicit in torture?
People detained in Afghanistan continue to face torture and other ill-treatment, in particular by the country's intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS). Amnesty International, the UN and others have consistently reported cases of torture and other ill-treatment. Yet members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) – particularly those from Belgium, the UK, Canada, the Netherlands and Norway – have continued to hand detainees over to the NDS.The abuses are taking place in the context of the ongoing conflict involving the Afghan government, international military forces, the Taleban and other armed groups. Over the past two years, Amnesty International has received repeated reports of torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of the NDS, including detainees being whipped, exposed to extreme cold and deprived of food. Many of them have been arrested arbitrarily and detained incommunicado, without access to lawyers and families.By transferring individuals to locations where they are at grave risk of torture and other ill-treatment, ISAF states may be complicit in this treatment. They are also breaching their international legal obligations.

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