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| Afghanistan |
| Taliban prison riot over |
| 2006-03-02 |
| Police declared a four-day revolt at Afghanistan's main jail over late on Wednesday after more than 1,350 inmates surrendered. The riot erupted at Kabul's Pul-e-Charkhi jail late on Saturday, allegedly instigated by about 300 Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners whom police said were trying to create chaos so that they could escape. "The violence is over," police rapid reaction force commander General Mahboob Amiri said as the last of the prisoners were made to leave the riot-smashed cell block for more secure facilities. "The prison is under full control of police," he said. Hundreds of extra police and soldiers deployed at the height of the standoff had left the complex on the outskirts of Kabul but 200 would remain, Amiri said. He said that a fifth body had been found in the evacuated block - that of a man from the criminal wing who was killed on Tuesday with what police said was a club fashioned from a metal bar, perhaps from a bed frame. Clashes broke out among the prisoners late on Tuesday after more than 1,000 inmates convicted of non-terrorist offenses had declared their intention to call off their resistance early the following day. The political prisoners apparently opposed their surrender. It had been expected that they would resist being taken out from the block but they did not, deputy justice minister Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai said. "There was no use of force. The criminal wing surrendered and later the political wing also started to come out and surrender one by one," he said. Police said that two of the four inmates killed in the first wave of violence after the riot erupted on Saturday were Al Qaeda members - one from Pakistan and the other from Tajikistan. Prisoners armed with makeshift weapons attacked guards, had set alight furniture and bedding and smashed windows and doors. Some chanted slogans against President Hamid Karzai and US President George W. Bush, witnesses said. Guards opened fire to try to control the situation and the complex was surrounded by about 1,000 troops and police who occasionally fired into the building, witnesses said. Five inmates were killed and around 30 wounded overall in four days of mayhem at the prison. Among the inmates removed from the block on Wednesday was US citizen Edward Caraballo, one of three Americans convicted in September 2004 of torturing suspects in a so-called private war on terror. Hashimzai said that authorities confiscated Caraballo's telephone and laptop because he had used them to "disseminate false information" about the riot. Caraballo said that he was being held hostage but this was rejected by authorities. Besides the criminal and 300 political prisoners, the block also held about 60 women, some with children, who were moved out late on Tuesday. Prison guards said that some of the women, who included a Nepali convicted of drug smuggling, had told them that they were raped. Several officials have dismissed the rape allegations but Amiri said that they would be investigated. Most Al Qaeda suspects caught in Afghanistan after the US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001 have been transferred to the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or the US jail at Bagram Air Base near Kabul. Some low-ranking Al Qaeda and rank-and-file Taliban are still housed in Pul-e-Charkhi, officials say. Prisoner representatives handed a list of demands to negotiators on Monday. The negotiators said that some would be addressed, such as complaints over living conditions. Others, including a review of all cases, were still being considered. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Women were reportedly raped, but no reports from the men. Hmmm...must just be part of the kulture. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2006-03-02 05:28 |
| #1 Darn, I was hoping for a full scale revolt. Just giving them a reason to clean house! |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-03-02 03:43 |