17 Afghans, 1 Turk released from Guantánamo
By
Paul Haven
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KABUL, Afghanistan — Seventeen Afghans came home
Tuesday in one of the
biggest known releases from the U.S. jail at Guantánamo Bay, and
one
quickly accused the U.S. military of abusing him despite warnings from
a senior Afghan official to keep quiet about any complaints.
A Turk suspected of ties to al-Qaida was also
freed from
Guantánamo and
sent back to Turkey.
The releases lowered the number of detainees
classified as "enemy
combatants" at the U.S. Navy base on the tip of Cuba to about 520 from
about 40 countries, said Maj. Michael Shavers a Pentagon spokesman.
The detention center has drawn strong
international criticism, and U.S.
court rulings have chipped away Bush administration rules that denied
the prisoners many legal safeguards. Some freed detainees have charged
they were mistreated and tortured, and multiple investigations are
looking into abuses at detention camps in Guantánamo and
Afghanistan.
The detainees include suspected Taliban and
al-Qaida members captured
during the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the repressive Taliban
government in late 2001.
Shavers said the 17 Afghans and the Turk were
cleared of suspicions of
terrorist links during a tribunal review process that ended recently.
Five others cleared in late March already were sent home and 15 more
are awaiting transfers.
"We're always looking at opportunities to transfer
additional
individuals," Shavers said when asked if more releases were expected.
The Afghan men, nearly all bearded and most
wearing blue-jean jackets
bearing numbers of them, were handed over to Afghan authorities during
a ceremony at the country's Supreme Court hours after they arrived from
Cuba.
Referring to journalists gathered in the room for
a news conference,
Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari urged the freed men not to complain of
bad treatment, warning it could jeopardize the chances for more
releases.
"Don't tell these people the stories of your time
in prison because the
government is trying to secure the release of others, and it may harm
the release of your friends," he said.
One detainee, Abdul Rahman, said he had been
abused during 3½
years in detention, although he would not elaborate.
"There was a lot of bad treatment against us, but
this is not the time
to tell you," Rahman said. "Everybody in the world knows what kind of a
jail it is. I can't talk about it now."
Rahman, who appeared to be in his 40s, said he is
from Zabul province,
a hotbed of militant activity north of the former Taliban stronghold of
Kandahar.
Another former detainee, Abdul Rahim Muslin Dost,
42, of eastern
Nangarhar province, said he worked as a journalist before he was
captured.
"We spent more than 3½ years there. If
there is a government and
a Supreme Court in Afghanistan, why did nobody ask about our
situation?" Dost said. "If we were guilty we ought to have been brought
to stand trial here. Why should America be allowed to ask us questions
and interrogate us?"
He said that he kept a journal during his time in
Guantánamo, but that
American authorities refused to let him take it home.
"One day, I promise you, I will write a book about
it," he said.
The men were allowed only brief comments before
they were whisked away
by Afghan security agents. An intelligence official told the Associated
Press the men would be held at an undisclosed location Tuesday night,
but could be sent back home as early as today.
The freed Turkish man was turned over to
authorities in the southern
Turkish city of Adana the Anatolia news agency said Tuesday.
Salih Uyar, 24, was questioned for several hours
by prosecutors, who
did not file crimial charges, then he was handed over to military
authorities, who could charge him with draft evasion. Uyar spent more
than three years at Guantánamo, suspected of ties to al-Qaida.
The U.S. military has released a total of 232
detainees from
Guantanamo, 65 of them on the condition they continue to be held by
their home governments.
Afghanistan's chief justice said the latest
release was negotiated by
the Afghan and American governments and indicated more would follow.
"There are three kinds of prisoners in
Guantánamo. There are
those that
have committed crimes and should be there, then there are people who
were falsely denounced, and third there are those who are there because
of the mistakes of the Americans," he said.
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