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Suspects suffer severe torture in Afghanistan custody, U.N. says

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REPORTING FROM KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- Suspected insurgents in Afghan custody have been subjected to torture including electric shocks, being hung by their hands and having their genitals twisted, the United Nations said in a report Monday.

The 74-page report, detailing a widespread pattern of brutal abuse, will probably complicate American efforts to hand over security responsibilities to Afghan authorities as a prelude to winding down the Western combat mission in Afghanistan.

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In a preemptive move, the NATO force announced last month that it had halted prisoner transfers to more than a dozen detainee centers named in the report, a draft of which was shown to American commanders. Many of the suspected fighters who end up in detention are captured in the field by U.S. and coalition forces.

The United Nations said the abuse, while routine and systematic, was not based on Afghan government policy, but rather appeared to have been carried out at the initiative of individual jailers and security officials. It added that Afghan government ministries had cooperated in the investigation and had already begun initiating reforms.

The report, which was researched over nearly a year, ending in August, represents a setback to enormously expensive U.S.-led efforts to bring Afghanistan’s criminal justice system and security practices up to something resembling international standards.

Based on interviews with more than 300 detainees, the report cited varying degrees of abuses at nearly 50 facilities in two-thirds of Afghanistan’s provinces. Most of the security detainees were suspected of affiliation with the Taliban or other insurgent groups

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India, Afghanistan pledge cooperation

-- Laura King

Photo: An Afghan soldier at the gate of Pul-i-Charkhi prison in 2007. Credit: Musadeq Sadeq / Associated Press

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