Sardar Ahmad, Agence France Presse  --  Arab News

KABUL, 13 May 2004 — The US military revealed yesterday it was investigating claims that an Afghan police officer was stripped, kicked and photographed naked in custody at a US army base in eastern Afghanistan.

“(Monday) afternoon coalition leaders were notified of an allegation of detainee abuse,” US military spokesman Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager said.

“On notification, coalition forces immediately launched an investigation into this matter. The investigation continues,” he told a press conference in Kabul.

The US military had received “various allegations of alleged assault and deprivation of sleep” and complaints about living conditions.

“Investigations have been made into those allegations and adjustments have been made based on those allegations,” he added.

The investigation follows claims carried in the New York Times by a former Afghan police officer who was held at the US military headquarters at Bagram air base, north of Kabul, and bases in the main southern city of Kandahar and Gardez in July and August 2003.

Interviewed by AFP yesterday, Khwaja Sayed Nabi Siddiqi said regular beatings, taunts about his sexual habits and sleep deprivation were a common experience during his detention.

“They started making jokes about me. They started beating my body. With their military boots they were kicking me on my head, my neck and my back,” he said of his first days in captivity in Gardez.

“They started making nasty jokes. They were imitating the voices of donkeys, cows and other animals and were telling me, ‘You guys are having sex with animals, which one do you want?’”

The American Embassy in Kabul confirmed that an inquiry into allegations of prisoner abuse was under way.

“The US military has launched an investigation,” US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said in a statement, promising “appropriate action” would be taken if the allegations were proven.

“To the best of our knowledge this is the first time that anyone in the military chain of command or the United States Embassy has heard of this alleged mistreatment,” he said.

The embassy was unaware of the existence of any photos of the alleged incident.

Mansager said detainees in Bagram were visited regularly by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross and that procedures were changed based on their feedback. Some 13,500 US troops dominate an international coalition of more than 15,500 troops hunting Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has received 44 complaints about their actions. “We have received 44 complaints about bombardments, going to their houses without permission, searching of women, bombing fuel tankers, bombing shops and also some complaints about prisoners,” chairwoman Sima Samar said.

Hundreds of people are detained around Afghanistan by US forces but most of them are kept at Bagram.