US defends treatment of detainees in Afghanistan
December 16 2004
KABUL: The US military defended its human-rights record in Afghanistan on Wednesday, claiming that a May inspection by an American general found no evidence of abuse at 22 detention centres in the country.
The military, however, admitted that a still-unreleased report of the inspection by Brig-Gen Charles Jacoby Jr will not include incidents before May, including investigations into the deaths of prisoners.
Pentagon officials said a day earlier that eight prisoner deaths in Afghanistan have been investigated since mid-2002, a higher number than previously reported. Human Rights Watch said slow-paced investigations had ‘spawned a culture of impunity’ that may have fuelled prisoner abuse in Iraq. "We can’t go back and change the past," US Major Mark McCann told reporters in Kabul.
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http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en75080&F_catID=&f_type=source The Army has tasked Brig.
Gen. Charles H. Jacoby,
USMA Class of 1978, to
review all Afghanistan
detention operations.
DoD Photo