US hands over Bagram jail to Afghanistan

25/03/2013| IslamWeb

Afghanistan has taken full control of Bagram military prison from the United States, as US-led forces wind down more than a decade of war.

The handover on Monday follows an agreement reached after a week of negotiations between US and Afghan officials, which includes assurances that inmates who "pose a danger" to Afghans and “international” forces will continue to be detained under Afghan law.

US Defense secretary Chuck Hagel spoke with Afghan president Hamid Karzai by telephone about the detention facility, which is located next to Bagram airfield.

The United States last year agreed to hand over responsibility for most of the more than 3,000 detainees at the prison to Afghanistan and held a transfer ceremony in September.

But US soldiers remained at the prison and controlled the area around it.

A formal ceremony transferring the last prisoners to Afghan custody collapsed at the last minute two weeks ago when General Joseph Dunford, the head of international forces in Afghanistan, called it off - because Karzai rejected part of the transfer deal.

The collapse provoked an angry response from Karzai and embarrassed both sides as Hagel was starting his first official visit to the country as defense secretary.

PHOTO CAPTION

A file photo, reviewed by the U.S. military, shows a U.S. military guard walking a corridor between detainee cells at the Parwan detention facility near Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan.

Al-Jazeera