The struggle started with this news, when Hamid Karzai’s government quietly started to release prisoners from Bagram prison in 2013. Parwan Detention Facility or also called the Bagram Theater Internment Facility is located in U.S. airbase, in Bagram. This facility has a long dramatic history, were torturing dozens of prisoners were disclosed. The control of this prison was handed to Afghan Authorities in a small ceremony on September 10, 2012. Later the Afghan authorities started to classify the prisoners into two groups: The first group is identified as criminals and they’ll wait for criminal prosecution, the second group will be reevaluated by a review board to see whether they should keep holding them as wartime detainees without any trial or they should be released. Therefore, 638 detainees were approved for the first group and 963 for the second group. It means that there is a possibility to release 963 detainees, but according to US authorities there are so many dangerous prisoners among these men. Recently Afghan authorities informed about their plan to release 65 prisoners. According to Abdul Basir Azizi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's attorney general, the release of these detainees was approved after review that revealed that there was no enough evidence against them, so they cannot be held anymore. But "Detainees from this group of 65 are directly linked to attacks killing or wounding 32 U.S. or coalition personnel and 23 Afghan security personnel or civilians," the military said in a statement.
Therefore, the U.S government has requested the Afghan authorities not to release them, but in my view releasing these prisoners is not the only issue here. As we know, United States is seeking to sign a Bilateral Security Agreement with Afghanistan, which allows remaining of 10,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014. And as we know Hamid Karzai has held against signing this contract.He has already informed that he won’t formally agree to sign it before the presidential election on April, which will cause a lot of trouble for Pentagon’s planners to make arrangements for their troops to stay in Afghanistan until the deal is signed. So as we see here the game is a little more complicated, from one side the US government is seeking to sign the agreement and from the other side the Afghan authorities are trying to get more instead. But once more let’s get back to the classification of prisoners. How sure the Americans are that all those detainees are really dangerous or in other words they are terrorists. Afghan authorities always claim that many of these men are those who are not real terrorists; they were abused or manipulated by Taliban and therefore they were used, so such behavior will make them stand once more against their own nation, and they believe that they can solve this issue as a domestic problem and without foreigners’ interfere. This idea is really respectable, but if the Afghan authorities are missing some evidence, then what happens? So as we can see it’s quite understandable that the US government is concerned about releasing those prisoners. As it’s seen that some of the released prisoners are already back in the battle with international and Afghan forces. But it’s hard to believe that Afghan authorities are not aware of such facts. I think releasing these prisoners has more than one aspect, we should remember the geopolitical situation of Afghanistan. Is the US government really seeking only peace and a stable government and growth in this country? Is it really the only goal for American policy there? Can we ignore the role of Iran and Pakistan?
As we know the relation of Iran and Afghanistan is getting better. So as we put all these figures together we can consume that there is a clear message to the west, Afghanistan needs a complete support from the west. If US government wants to maintain its troops in Afghanistan, then they need to fully cooperate, otherwise the Afghan authorities will do things which is not in interest of western countries such as releasing the detainees from Bagram or establishing a much better relationship with Iran which means more influence of I.R .Iran in the area which is not actually in US government interest.
Work cited:
Crilly, Rob. "US condemns Afghan prisoner release plans." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/10633018/US-condemns-Afghan-prisoner-release-plans.html>.
Shoichet, Catherine, Qadir Sediqi, Barbara Starr, and Sara Mazloumsaki. "U.S. slams Afghanistan's plans to release 65 prisoners." CNN. Cable News Network, 13 Feb. 2014. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. <http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/12/world/asia/afghanistan-prisoner-release/>.
"Afghanistan releases 65 'dangerous' prisoners despite American protest." Fox News. FOX News Network, 13 Feb. 2014. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/13/afghanistan-releases-65-accused-militants-despite-american-protest/>.
Rosenberg, Matthew. "Afghans’ Plan to Release Prisoners Angers U.S.." The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Dec. 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/world/asia/afghans-planned-prisoner-releases-anger-us.html>.
Cohen, Tamara. "Afghan president to free scores of Taliban fighters: Karzai condemned over betrayal of British war dead." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 2 Jan. 2014. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2532127/Anger-Afghan-plan-release-88-Taliban-prisoners.html>.
