US military frees 80 Afghan prisoners

THE US military freed about 80 Afghan prisoners yesterday, as the country’s most senior judge said the government was negotiating the release of hundreds more from US custody.

Two buses brought the prisoners from the main US base at Bagram to the supreme court in the capital, Kabul, where they were received by Afghanistan’s chief justice.

Fazl Hadi Shinwari congratulated them on their freedom and told them to be grateful to return to their families for the Muslim holiday feast of Eid al-Adha, which begins on Thursday.

An aide to president Hamid Karzai said on condition of anonymity that the prisoners were held either at Bagram, a US base in the south-eastern city of Khost, or in the southern city of Kandahar.

Court officials initially announced the men were from the US jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but later said they were mistaken.

US and allied Afghan forces have captured thousands of suspected Taliban and al-Qaida members in Afghanistan during and since the bombing campaign that ousted the repressive Taliban regime in late 2001.

Hundreds of detainees have been classified as ‘enemy combatants’ and transferred to the prison at the US naval base at Guantanamo, while many others have been held at US bases in Afghanistan.

The US military has suggested it is minimising detentions, and a reconciliation programme to be organised by Mr Karzai’s government could reduce the numbers further.

Mr Shinwari said the release of the 80 Afghans was part of that programme, and Afghan officials were negotiating the release of another 400 people in US custody in Afghanistan and an undisclosed number held in Guantanamo.

“The government doesn’t want one prisoner to be left in jail,” he told reporters at the court.

Mr Karzai has repeatedly called on former Taliban supporters to make their peace with the new Afghanistan and throw themselves into the effort to rebuild the country in return for freedom from prosecution.