The US has reached an agreement with the Afghanistan government to transfer the Parwan Detention Facility to Afghan control, the Pentagon said Saturday. The decision came two weeks after negotiations broke down over whether the US would have the power to block the release of some detainees. According to a senior US official, a key element to the agreement is that the Afghans can invoke a procedure that insures prisoners considered dangerous would not be released. The agreement also includes a provision that allows the two sides to work together to resolve any differences.
Transfer of the Parwan detention center is critical to the ongoing effort to gradually shift control of the countryÂ’s security to the Afghans as the US and allies move toward the full withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2014.
Afghans demanded control of the center, but US officials have worried that the most threatening detainees would be freed once the US transferred control. The senior official said US and Afghan officials who are familiar with the detainees would meet to assess the potential danger of their release to coalition forces. The official said that more senior level officials could be brought in if there are disagreements but that to date the two sides have been able to agree without bringing in those higher authorities.
Disagreements over the detention facility, which also included whether Afghans can be held without trial, had thrown a pall over the ongoing negotiations for a bilateral security agreement that would govern the presence of US forces in Afghanistan after 2014.
Currently, there is an Afghan administrator of the Parwan prison, but the Americans have power to veto the release of detainees. The prisoners held under American authority do not have the right to a trial because the US considers them part of an ongoing conflict.