Almost a third of all detainees recently transferred to Afghan control have been tortured and Afghanistan's spy agency is operating secret facilities to avoid international scrutiny, a United Nations report released on Sunday said.
The findings could complicate the already thorny issue of how to manage the security transition ahead of the withdrawal of NATO-led troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year. Hundreds of detainees are being transferred from NATO to Afghan control as part of that transition.
Based on interviews with hundreds of detainees between October 2011 and October 2012, the 139-page report found "credible and reliable evidence" that more than half of those interviewed experienced torture or abuse.
Of the 79 detainees interviewed who were transferred from NATO to Afghan control during the 12 months, 25 were tortured, a rise of seven per cent over the previous year's report.
"The (Afghan) government's efforts to address torture and those of ISAF (NATO's International Security Assistance Force), although significant, have not resulted in a marked improvement and reduction in the use of torture," said the report.
Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge court has begun a second trial of two former regime leaders on...
The Obama administration is to carry out a major study into female genital mutilation, in an...
Migrant workers building the first stadium for Qatar's 2022 World Cup have been earning as little...
Israeli police raided the home of 15-year-old Tariq Abu Khdeir early Friday, just hours after the...
