10 March 2012, NYT: U.S. and Afghanistan Agree on Prisoner Transfer as Part of Long-Term Agreement
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/world/asia/karzai-denounces-coalition-over-airstrikes.html
SEPT. 16, 2012
Karzai Denounces Coalition Over Airstrikes
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two of the most contentious issues dividing the United States and President Hamid Karzai's administration re-emerged as the Afghan leader condemned American-led forces for killing eight women in airstrikes on Sunday and denounced his American allies for continuing to hold hundreds of Afghan prisoners.
After the coalition initially said that it needed time to investigate Afghan reports of the deaths, by evening it confirmed that the civilians had died in airstrikes launched early Sunday in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. It said the strikes were carried out "solely with the intent of countering known insurgents," and offered its sympathies to the families of those slain. It did not give a number of dead; Afghan officials said eight women who were out collecting firewood had died.
While Mr. Karzai's condemnation was likely to rankle some Western officials, it was in keeping with how he has responded to the killing of Afghan bystanders by both coalition forces and the Taliban, which is responsible for the vast majority of civilian deaths in Afghanistan. [1] Instead, the presidential palace reserved its strongest language for the continued detention of some 600 Afghans at what was once the main American prison here. Mr. Karzai's office said in a statement that keeping the prisoners was a "serious breach" and a "serious violation" of a deal struck [2] this year, under which the United States agreed to transfer control of the prison to Afghan authorities on Sept. 9.
"The continued holding of Afghans in American custody runs in contradiction with the spirit of mutual friendship," it said. "The people of Afghanistan consider the issue of prisons and detention of their fellow citizens a matter of their national sovereignty."
After a summer in which American and Afghan officials were more often than not on the same page, the confrontational tone of the statement was a sharp reminder of the acrimony that has often characterized relations between Mr. Karzai and his American benefactors. As recently as March, Mr. Karzai referred to Americans as "demons." [3]
The statement came after Mr. Karzai met with Ambassador Marc Grossman, the United States special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who was in Kabul on a previously unannounced visit. The men discussed the prison issue and stalled efforts to strike a peace deal with the Taliban, the palace said.
The Americans were holding roughly 3,000 people at the prison, which is next to Bagram Air Base north of Kabul, when the United States and Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding in March that laid out a six-month timetable for the transfer. But Afghan officials say 600 people detained since March remain in American custody, along with about 30 of the original prisoners considered too dangerous to release but too difficult to prosecute because of a lack of admissible evidence.
American officials have not said anything about the 600 figure, but they have acknowledged holding the men detained before the deal was struck. They also have said they want the Afghans to agree to detain those men indefinitely [4] under stipulations in the Geneva Convention that permit wartime detentions without trial.
Sunday's statement from Mr. Karzai's office said Afghan judicial authorities would soon "express their views" on how or whether a system of indefinite detention would comply with Afghanistan's laws.
Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Afghanistan's national security adviser, said in an interview last week that the Afghan government would eventually implement such a system but wanted control of the prisoners immediately. The Americans want a guarantee that the Afghans will leave intact the American detention system that allows the indefinite holding of prisoners deemed dangerous if there is insufficient evidence to try them.
"It is like the egg and the chicken," said Mr. Spanta, who is viewed as one of Mr. Karzai's more pro-Western advisers. Mr. Spanta said in the interview that he needed "a little space, two or three days, to find a diplomatic solution." But with no solution at hand, the Karzai administration appeared to be taking the negotiations public with Sunday's statement.
In response, the American Embassy stressed that "there is no question of our commitment to fully implement" the prison transfer accord. "Ambassador Grossman made clear in his discussion with the president that the United States fully respects Afghan sovereignty," it said in a statement.
Sunday's civilian deaths were the latest case of innocents being caught up in an operation by the coalition, which has reduced civilian casualties in part by limiting the use of air power.
The airstrikes took place in the Alingar district of Laghman Province. The coalition said the strikes were called in around 2 a.m. during a firefight with insurgents that had been spotted moving through the area.
According to Maj. Lori Hodge of the Air Force, coalition forces "engaged with precision munitions and direct fire" -- airstrikes and gunfire -- with about 45 insurgents. She could not say how many insurgents were killed.
Coalition forces were apparently unaware that village women sometimes go into the woods in the early hours of the morning to fetch wood for cooking fires they need to have going by breakfast time.
Alissa J. Rubin and Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting.
The New York Times
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/world/asia/10afghanistan.html
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/world/asia/us-and-afghanistan-agree-on-detainee-transfer.html
[4] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/world/asia/us-puts-afghan-transfers-at-parwan-prison-on-hold.html