Prisoners moved to Kabul from "warlord jails"

Mohammad Nabi is a new arrival at Pul-i-Charkhi jail in the capital Kabul. He told IRIN he was happy to play volleyball after his transfer last Friday after two and half years in the squalid Jawzjan jail in the northern city of Sheberghan. Nabi is one of over 800 alleged Taliban fighters who have been detained by powerful northern warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum since the fall of the fundamentalist regime in late 2001. The Afghan government has been criticised by local and international rights groups for failing to assist these prisoners, held in appalling conditions in one of many of Afghanistan's "private" jails. "I feel as if I am freed. This is a new life," the father of six said. Nabi and his fellow inmates still have to sleep on a rough floor with poor drinking water and very basic facilities at Pul-i-Charkhi, which is currently being upgraded to bring it more in line with international penal standards. But most of the inmates IRIN interviewed said they were happy now that they were in an official prison - which made possible visits from relatives and a trial date. "At least there is no torture and we have good food here and a hope that our fate will be settled one day," another newly transferred inmate said. The transfer of Jawzjan's prisoners to Kabul happened just a week after inmates at Jawzjan began a hunger strike to draw attention to their plight. According to sources at the Afghan Interior Ministry, conditions were deemed inhumane for prisoners after a delegation visited Sheberghan, about 130 km west of the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, to investigate the hunger strike. "Prisoners complained of harassment, rights violation, torture and extortion by the prison guards," an official at the Ministry of Justice, who declined to be named, told IRIN. Recent wounds caused by chains could easily be seen on most of the Jawzjan prisoners' wrests and ankles. "We had to spend days and nights shackled, and even during transportation to Kabul our hands and feet were bound by chains," Abdul Rashid, a 27-year-old prisoner, told IRIN. Rashid, who came from the southern province of Zabul, said inmates had to pay guards in Jawzjan to allow them see their relatives. "We even had to share aid agencies' assistance with the guards, otherwise they were giving us a hard time," the former Taliban sympathiser said. Zuhrudin Zaheer, the head jailer at Pul-i-Charkhi, told IRIN that the transferred prisoners had severe health problems and suffered respiratory, intestinal and psychiatric problems. "Most of them are affected by tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases that need to be urgently treated," the official said. Currently, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and "Emergency" - an international health NGO, are trying to get access to the inmates. But, Zaheer said, Pul-i-Charkhi needed a health clinic and ambulances as the number of prisoners was rising daily. The transfer has led to strain in an already overstretched system. "We had severe water supply problems for the 400 criminal inmates who were already here and now with the 849 Jawzjan arrivals we need urgent assistance to renovate the water supply of another block to house these new inmates," Abdul Salam Bakhshi, director of prisons at the Afghan Ministry of Justice, told IRIN. According to Bakhshi, there are currently 4,800 prisoners housed in at least 30 state jails. Hundreds more languish in an unknown number of private prisons in the provinces, mostly controlled by powerful warlords or local commanders. Most of the prisons share similar problems - a lack of space, poor hygiene and long delays in cases coming to trial. Bakhshi believes the transfer of Jawzjan inmates to the capital marks an important step towards resolving the fate of thousands of alleged Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters who have languished in US and Afghan custody since the campaign against terrorism began in late 2001. "The Ministry of Justice has already started reviewing these prisoners' status and those not considered a threat would be freed" Bakhshi said.