Afghanistan's main rights body is seeking access to prisoners in US custody in Afghanistan, following graphic revelations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers, an official said Tuesday.
"The release of pictures of Iraqi prisoners has raised concerns among Afghans, fearing the same thing could happen to Afghan prisoners," Ahmad Zia Langari of the independent Human Rights Commission told AFP.
The commission has written to the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Barno, requesting access to all US military holding facilities, including the detention center at their Bagram airbase headquarters.
"People from around the country have expressed their concerns over the prisoner abuses. Fears were raised after people saw TV reports about prisoners in Iraq," Langari said.
US military officials last Wednesday said prisoners in Afghanistan were treated according to international rules.
"I can say that the Bagram facility does operate strictly in accordance with the internationally accepted rules of treatment of people under confinement," spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Tucker Mansager told reporters in Kabul.
Two Afghans died in US custody at the Bagram detention centre, 50 kilometre's (31 miles) north of Kabul, in December 2002.
They had been detained for suspected links to insurgent groups.
A death certificate for one of the men listed beating as the cause. The results of a military investigation have never been announced.
"The investigation is ongoing," another US spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Dewerth Michele told AFP last week.
A 15,500-strong international coalition, dominated by 13,500 US troops, is hunting Taleban and al Qaeda remnants, and as part of their operations holds people at its main headquarters of Bagram Air Base and several other around the country.
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