Prisoners detained by the US in Afghanistan on suspicion of links to terrorism have been able to communicate with their families via video link for the first time, the Red Cross said yesterday.
The families of about 60 detainees at the largest US base in Afghanistan, at Bagram, had seen and spoken to their relatives in video conference calls organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) last week, it said.
More were due to link up yesterday in an initiative worked on for years by the ICRC, which has been urging US authorities to allow family visits for detainees at Bagram and the larger detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"The system is the first of its kind," the head of the ICRC delegation in Afghanistan, Reto Stocker, said in a press release. "It was set up basically to reassure detainees and their families by allowing them to see and speak to one another."
Those waiting at the ICRC office in Kabul to take part in the new program included three sons, a brother and a brother-in-law of a policeman the family said was detained seven months ago.
"The Americans came and told his commander they need to talk to him. Then he was flown to Bagram," said the brother, named only Chandullah, adding they had no idea why their relative was detained.
"When people are arrested by the Afghan government, you go to Pul-i-Charki [the main prison in Kabul] and see them," the 32-year-old said. "But when they are arrested by the Americans, it is like this big mystery. You never know if they are in Afghanistan, or taken from Afghanistan, or if they are well."
There are between 600 and 650 people detained at the US base at Bagram, around 60km north of the capital, Kabul. They have been rounded up in military operations in Afghanistan, one of the main battlefields for the US-led "war on terror."
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