Afghanistan Times
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AT-KABUL: The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that one in every three conflict-related detainees has endured torture or ill-treatment.
The UNAMA in its report issued on Wednesday said that every third of the 790 interviewed detainees has said to have endured torture or ill-treatment.
The report said that the figure showed 14 percent decrease in the number of detainees ill-treated or tortured as comparing to the past.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, Nicholas Haysom said that their findings show some progress in this regard. The UNAMA welcomed the government’s commitment to expedite efforts to put a halt to torture and ill-treatment in destination centers.
Haysom accredited new policies devised by the government of national unity for the decrease in torture and ill-treatment in.
The report’s findings are based on interviews with 790 conflict-related detainees between February 2013 and December 2014 and with Afghan security, police and judicial officials, and analysis of documentary, medical and other information.
According to the report, detainees were subjected to pain and suffering to obtain confession or information. It added that the tortures and ill-treatments included beatings with pipes, cables, and sticks, suspension, electric shocks and near-asphyxiation.
The report 44 of the 105 child detainees under age 18 interviewed have been subjected to torture or ill-treatment.
The presidential palace in a media statement welcomed the report and said that the government was committed to put end to torture and ill-treatment in all destination centers.
However, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) rebuffed the report and said that it was inaccurate, impartial and lacked credibility. “The UN in the report claimed that it has interviewed two detainees in Kunar and Daikundi provinces, while in reality no interview was conducted,” the NDS said.
