Recently released government documents show that the United States secretly operated more detention facilities in Pakistan than previously thought, Human Rights First said today.
According to a document summarizing the findings of a U.S. Army criminal investigation, which was provided to Human Rights First under the Freedom of Information Act, U.S. forces were holding individuals at a secret facility in Peshawar, Pakistan through at least July 2002.
Earlier reports had revealed detention facilities operated by U.S. forces only in Kohat and Alizai in Pakistan.
“This new information raises questions about how far reaching the U.S. program of secret detentions has been in Pakistan and continues to be,” said Priti Patel, an attorney with Human Rights First.
The Army document details an investigation into the treatment of an Afghan man who alleges that he was beaten on his hands, feet and chest by U.S. forces while he was held in the Peshawar detention facility. Army investigators could not subsequently locate the detainee to verify his story, and the investigation was closed as inconclusive.
The facility in Peshawar is part of a global network of secret U.S. detention facilities, described in a Human Rights First report last year, used to hold individuals caught up in U.S. operations in its “global war on terror.” Such facilities appear to operate largely outside the bounds of U.S. or international law.
Human Rights First has called on the Administration to end secret detentions and to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross full and immediate access to all individuals in the custody of U.S. military and intelligence forces.
Next week, Human Rights First will release Behind the Wire: An Update to Ending Secret Detentions, a report updating the current scope and nature of U.S. global detention operations.
For more on the U.S. global detention system, go to: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/detainees/rpt_disclose_intro.htm
Read the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command report revealing the detention facility in Peshawar: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/lawsuit/PDF/us-army-032405.pdf
