U.S. Puts Transfer of Detainees to Afghans on Hold
Source: NYT
One of the centerpieces of the hand-over of American control to Afghan authority encountered a last-minute unexpected obstacle on Sunday when the United States paused the transfer of the final couple of dozen Afghan detainees at the Parwan detention facility.
The Afghan government said it was going ahead with what President Hamid Karzai’s office had characterized as a “splendid” transfer ceremony scheduled for Monday at Bagram Air Base, where the Parwan prison is, to mark the shift in detention operations. But the ceremony looked almost certain to take place without all of the roughly 3,000 Afghan detainees having been turned over, which was central to the memorandum of understanding struck between the two countries on March 9.
That agreement, signed at Mr. Karzai’s demand, set out a six-month transfer deadline and reflected rising assertions of sovereignty by the president and the Afghan government.
On Sunday, however, the United States said it was putting on hold the transfer of about 30 Afghan detainees because of doubts about the government’s commitment to other parts of the memorandum of understanding.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/world/asia/us-puts-afghan-transfers-at-parwan-prison-on-hold.html
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