German minister raps US prison in Afghanistan

* Says Washington should shut down Bagram detention centre

BERLIN: Germany’s development minister has sharply criticised a prison at the main US base in Afghanistan, arguing that conditions there undermine efforts to secure human rights in the country, a magazine reported on Saturday.

“According to recent reports, similar conditions prevail at Bagram as at Guantanamo,” the US detention facility on Cuba, the weekly Der Spiegel quoted the minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, as saying.

“The international community wants to help build a state of law and guarantee human rights in Afghanistan, and that is being counteracted at Bagram.”

Last month, the New York Times reported that inmates are held by the dozen in wire cages at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul – some for as long as two or three years without access to lawyers or the chance to hear the allegations against them.

However, the US military defended its detention of about 500 inmates at the base, saying they are treated humanely and provided the “best possible living conditions.”

Der Spiegel said Wieczorek-Zeul called for “political pressure” on Washington for the closure of the Bagram prison.

Wieczorek-Zeul, a prominent left-winger in the Social Democratic Party of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, has stayed in her job in new Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition of left and right. ap

Home | Foreign