Pul-e-Charkhi prison

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Pul-e-Charkhi prison (in Dari, زندان پل چرخی) is a large prison in Afghanistan east of Kabul. Construction of the jail was begun in the 1970s by order of then-president Mohammed Daoud Khan and was completed during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979-89. The prison became notorious for torture and other abuses after it came under the control of Afghanistan's communist government following the invasion by the Soviet Union.^[1] Between April 1978 and the Soviet invasion of December 1979, the Afghan Communists executed 27,000 political prisoners there.^[2]

1 1978-1986
- 1.1 Mass grave
2 2001-present
3 References
4 External links

[edit] 1978-1986

[edit] Mass grave

A communist-era mass grave, close to the Poli Charkhi prison, was discovered in December 2006 by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and is believed to hold some 2,000 bodies.^[3] Officials of the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture believe that the massacre took place between 1978 and 1986 when the Moscow-backed communist presidents, Nur Muhammad Taraki, Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal were in power.

[edit] 2001-present

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[edit] Living Conditions

The living conditions of the prison have been criticized by several human rights groups. The prison had been cited as overcrowded and the living conditions as sub-par. There are eight cell blocks but only three are being used which has caused overcrowding. The prison is making room for 110 prisoners that are coming from the US prison in Guantánamo Bay. There are also about 70 female prisoners who share the prison. In most cases, children of the female inmates live with them in the prison.

[edit] Current Events

There are now 350 Taliban and al-Qaeda inmates out of the 1,300. In January of 2006, seven Taliban inmates disguised themselves as visitors and escaped from the prison. In recent news, there had been an inmate takeover on February 26, 2006. A four-day riot has led to the death of six people.

An ongoing (as of 18 March) riot in mid-March 2008 resulted in a takeover of portions of the prison by inmates.

A prisoner, Abdul Rahman, had been held in Pul-e-Charkhi but was released a few days later due to threats from neighboring cell mates. Abdul Rahman had been sent to the prison for his conversion to Christianity 15 year prior to his arrest.

[edit] American expansion

The United States has repeatedly announced that it will be shutting down its Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.^[4] The Americans planned to transfer most of the captives held in extrajudicial detention in Guantanamo, and in its less well known Bagram Theater internment facility to Afghan custody. United States President Bush negotiated a tentative deal with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the Afghans would accept prisoners from the Americans if the Americans expanded and modernized Afghan facilities and trained, and paid the salaries of the additional Afghan guards that would be required.

The initial plan called for reducing the maximum number of men held per cell from the current eight, to just two.^[4] For security reasons every cell would be equipped with its own toilet, replacing the current insecure method of letting all the captives leave their cells and share a single toilet at the end of each cell-block.

Under this initial plan the modernization of this wing would cost $20 million USD, and would have a maximum capacity of 670 captives.^[4] However, after a tour of the facility, during its modernization, it was realized that, for cultural reason, captives could not be expected to share a toilet with another man. Afghan's cultural modesty would not allow a captive to use a toilet with another man present, cutting the capacity of the modernized facility in half.

Then, on May 6, 2007, two American GIs, Colonel James W. Harrison Jr. and Master Sergeant Wilberto Sabalu, who had been part of the oversight team, were gunned down by one of the Afghan guards.^[4] This forced a delay on construction as all the guards underwent new security checks.

Finally, there was controversy within the Afghan cabinet as to which Ministry would be responsible for the modernized part of the Prison.^[4]

32 captives from the Guantanamo facility had been transferred to Pul-e-Charkhi, as of January 2008.^[4] 125 captive had been transferred from the Bagram facility.

[edit] Riots

Questions have been raised about the amount of control the government has over the prison. In December 2004, foreign prisoners attacked guards with razor blades. A subsequent shoot-out left one Iraqi and three Pakistani prisoners and four Afghan police dead. Then, in January 2006, seven prisoners escaped, apparently by mingling with visitors. In February 2006 riots were apparently sparked by a new prison policy forcing prisoners to wear bright orange clothing, the colored clothing rule was enacted to avoid events similar to the January escape. The February 2006 riot resulted in six deaths, and 22 injured in critical condition according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The rioters used makeshift weapons to attack guards, then ignited furniture, and smashed doors and windows. Eventually, they took over a wing of the prison which they held for a few days.

On 16 March 2008, after a two-week dispute over arrests following an attempted jail-break, inmates rioted and took over sections of the building. Gunfire was heard in the complex and inmates claimed to be holding hostage two Afghan national soldiers. The hostage-takers threatened to kill the captured soldiers unless mediators were sent in to resolve the conflict. As of 18 March the conflict remained unresolved and Afghan police and military were arriving in force in preparation to raid the prison. ^[5]