AFGHANISTAN: Sixteen Afghan prisoners freed from Guantanamo

Exhausted, but happy, 16 Afghans were freed in Kabul on Thursday (October 12) after being released by the U.S. military from its Guantanamo Bay jail. Aged from 25 to to more than 55, they had been held as suspected fighters from the Taliban or its allies in Afghanistan after U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in 2001. Several of the bearded men interviewed by journalists, some wearing green, hospital-style ID tags on their wrists, said they were treated badly by the U.S. military during their detention in Afghanistan and at the Guantanamo base in Cuba. "They were treating us like animals, they were not treating us as human beings, they were too cruel, their behaviour was not imaginable, they were punishing us very badly like animals", said 38 years old Dr Khan Jan, who spent more than three in U.S. detention at Guantanamo The other prisoner who was excited to go home also complained about his period of life in U.S detention he said "Their (American) behaviour was against Islam, against our Koran, three Arab prisoners died during prosecution and searching, the life condition was very bad", said Mohammad Nasim, a released prisoner The prisoners were freed recently and handed over to Afghan authorities, who held them for several more days before Thursday's release ceremony. They are the latest batch of detainees to be freed from Guantanamo, where the treatment of prisoners has drawn widespread international condemnation. More than 400 suspected militants, captured mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, remain there.

ITN Source | October 12, 2006

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