KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday ordered the transfer of the US military prison at Bagram to Afghan control within a month, citing reports of human rights violations there.
Karzai issued the order after receiving a report detailing "many cases of violations of Afghan Constitution and other applicable laws of the country, the relevant international conventions and human rights," his office said.
"President Hamid Karzai has assigned a commission to transfer the Bagram Prison fully to Afghan government control within a month's time effective today," the statement said.
Karzai acted after a briefing by Gul Rahman Qazi, the chairman of the Constitutional Oversight Commission, on a report on the Bagram detention facility and the condition of its inmates.
The president "re-assigned the same commission initially tasked on January 9, 2010 to complete the transfer of the prison from the Americans within one year from January 2011 until January 2012.
"In consistence with the previous agreement on the transfer of the prison and all prisoners in foreign hands, the commission was instructed to complete the full takeover process within a month time starting today so that any more breach of the Afghan sovereignty can be avoided," the statement said.
The detention facility was built within the sprawling US military base at Bagram, north of the Afghan capital Kabul after the US-led invasion in 2001 and soon gained a reputation for extra-judicial brutality.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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