U.N. Expert Wants 725 Taliban Prisoners Released in Afghanistan, Access to

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U.N. Expert Wants 725 Taliban Prisoners Released in Afghanistan, Access to Detainees Held by U.S.

By Edith M. Lederer Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 23, 2004






UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A U.N. human rights expert called for the immediate release of an estimated 725 Taliban fighters taken prisoner in Afghanistan in 2001 and access to hundreds of other detainees held by U.S. forces.
The former Taliban combatants - including an estimated 350 Pakistanis - are being held in "inhuman" conditions, and Afghan government officials agree there is no legal basis to continue their imprisonment, Cherif Bassiouni told a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to a transcript released here on Monday.

While the United States says it has never put a hold on their release, he said, "there are allegations that the U.S. authorities ask that they continue to be kept in detention."

Bassiouni, a law professor at DePaul University in Chicago who is the U.N.'s independent expert on human rights in Afghanistan, talked to reporters Saturday at the end of an eight-day trip to Afghanistan. He said he would be formally reporting to the U.N. General Assembly on Afghanistan's human rights situation in October.


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBQSDB69YD.html