Mistreatment of prisoners by American forces in Afghanistan is systemic, Human Rights Watch said today, a day after the US army in Kabul launched a fresh inquiry into beating and sexual abuse at secret jails.
The rights body demanded information on how two Afghans died in US custody 18 months ago and called for wider access to detention centres where hundreds of al-Qaeda and other Islamic militant suspects are held.
A spokesman for the US Criminal Investigation Command, looking into the two deaths at Bagram air base just north of Kabul in December, 2002, said the investigation was "ongoing".
The US military in Kabul opened an inquiry this week into complaints by a former police officer that he was beaten, kicked, taunted, sexually abused and photographed naked during roughly 40 days in American custody in Afghanistan last summer.
The US-led force of 20,000 troops hunting al-Qaeda and the Taliban is keen to contain fallout from the complaint, having faced an Arab world backlash for abusing prisoners in Iraq.
"Afghans have been telling us for well over a year about mistreatment in US custody," Mr John Sifton, Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
"Mistreatment of prisoners by US military and intelligence personnel in Afghanistan is systemic and not limited to a few isolated cases," the statement said.
Human Rights Watch said some detainees complained of being stripped and photographed while naked. "Some of these abusive practices during interrogation were similar to those recently reported in Iraq," it said.
Mr Sifton said the United States should publicise the results of its investigations of abuse, fully prosecute those responsible and provide access to independent monitors.
Only the International Committee of the Red Cross has access to US detention centres in Afghanistan, including the largest at Bagram where some 300 suspects are believed to be held.
Suspected militants detained by US forces are either taken to centres in Afghanistan or to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Often nothing is known of their fate until they are freed.