Afghanistan News February 15, 2003

February 15, 2003

US military steps up anti-Taliban offensive in central Afghanistan
Friday February 14, 6:54 PM AFP
US-led forces in central Afghanistan appeared to be stepping up their bombardment of extremists in a remote mountain valley after a fresh pre-dawn offensive in the area.

Colonel Roger King, a spokesman for the US military, said coalition warplanes continued to pummel cave hideouts in the Baghram valley area of Helmand province, where a US Special Forces patrol was ambushed Monday.

He said troops taking part in the operation, code-named Eagle Fury, claimed to have routed rebel fighters, believed to be loyal to the hardline former Taliban regime, from one village in the Lejay area of Baghran.

Meanwhile, residents in Kandahar reported a heavy deployment of US vehicles, troops and helicopters heading towards Helmand from a US airbase on the outskirts of the main southern city.

"US Special Forces continued Operation Eagle Fury in Helmand province south of Lejay yesterday, with troops clearing dozens of caves," King told reporters Friday at Bagram air base near Kabul, the US military's headquarters in Afghanistan.

He said fighters had fled from one village, Robatak, where large amounts of empty ammunition cases, rocket tubes and rocket propelled grenade launchers were discovered.

"It is estimated enemy personnel may have taken refuge in the caves along the ridgeline to the east and west of Lejay.

King said coalition warplanes dropped four 500 pound bombs and fired several hundred rounds of ammunitions at the caves at around 3:30 am (2300 GMT Thursday), destroying at least three.

Despite reports that the fighting had claimed the lives of civilians living in the area, King said there had been no reports of non-combatant fatalities or casualties among coalition troops

He said a full "battle assessment" was to be carried out later Friday.

On Thursday, King said 15 fighters had been captured by more than 100 US troops, while an estimated 30 rebels were believed to have suffered heavy injuries. "We probably did one thing or another to most of them," he said.

The spokesman added that the exact size of the opposition force was unknown, but was not believed to number into the hundreds.

US-led troops have been pursuing die-hards from the Taliban and the al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan for 15 months.

This week's offensive comes just days after the conclusion of an operation near the southeastern Afghan border town of Spin Boldak which left 18 anti-government fighters dead.

More than 300 US troops were deployed to destroy a cave network, believed to be an extremist base, on Adi Ghar mountain from January 28 in what the US military said was its biggest offensive in the country since last March.

Weapons Cases Found in Afghan Mountains
Friday, February 14, 2003 8:06 AM EST
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) U.S. and coalition soldiers found rocket launcher tubes and empty weapon cases in mountains where they believe Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts may still be hiding, a U.S military spokesman said Friday.

The soldiers have been searching for enemy fighters in the mountains and valleys of the southern Helmand provice for the past week. The evidence indicated fighters had been in the area recently, said U.S. military spokesman Col. Roger King.

The soldiers ``did find evidence that somebody had opened up a lot of ammunition taken the weapons out of the cases and left the cases empty, which to our mind means that they have taken their ammunition and gone somewhere where they expect to use it.''

Also Friday, coalition aircraft pounded a cave complex in the mountains near Baghran. Three caves were destroyed, according to King. There are several caves in the area and the investigation of each is slow.

Residents in the area complained that the bombing, which has gone on for several days, killed some civilians earlier this week. There was one report of 30 people killed in three different villages in the Bagran area.

King repeated U.S. denials of civilian casualties in the sweep, dubbed ``Operation Eagle Fury.''

``I can't confirm any civilian casualties and the Afghan government can't confirm any. Right now all we have are unsupported reports,'' King told reporters at Bagram Air Force base, the headquarters for the U.S military in Afghanistan.

King estimated there were between 30 and 100 rebels hiding in the area.

``But that might not necessarily be all of them. There may be others in the area because it is a relatively long valley,'' King said.

He said the operation will likely last several more days.

U.S. and coalition soldiers scour caves for rebels in southern Afghanistan
Fri Feb 14, 3:13 AM ET AP
BAGRAM, Afghanistan - U.S. and coalition soldiers scoured the mountains and valleys of southern Afghanistan searching for suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives they have been chasing for much of the past week, a U.S. military spokesman said Friday.

The soldiers moved slowly through the mountains in Helmand province's Bagran region, passing deserted villages and collecting abandoned ammunition casings and rocket-launcher tubes as they went, U.S. military spokesman Col. Roger King said.

There was "evidence that somebody had opened up a lot of ammunition — taken the weapons out of the cases and left the cases empty, which to our mind means that they have taken their ammunition and gone somewhere where they expect to use it," he said.

King repeated a U.S. denial of civilian casualties in the weeklong operation, dubbed "Operation Eagle Fury." The U.S. military denotes all its operations with code names.

"I can't confirm any civilian casualties, and the Afghan government can't confirm any. Right now all we have are unsupported reports," King told reporters at Bagram Air Force base, the headquarters for the U.S military in Afghanistan.

Early Friday, coalition aircraft also pounded a cave complex in the mountains near Bagran. Three caves were destroyed, according to King. There are apparently a dozen caves in the area, and investigating each underground hide-out is slow.

Soldiers moved cautiously, watching for boobytraps and enemy fire.

Residents in the area complained that bombing that has gone on for several days killed some civilians earlier this week. There was one report of 30 people killed in three different villages in the Bagran area.

King estimated there were between 30 and 100 rebels hiding in the area.

"But that might not necessarily be all of them. There may be others in the area because it is a relatively long valley," King said. "So who knows? There may be more somewhere else."

He said the operation will likely last several more days while soldiers make their way through the cave complexes.

CIA Tape Analysis Shows Almost Certainly Bin Laden
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A CIA technical analysis of an audiotape aired on al Jazeera satellite television channel this week shows ``almost certainly'' it is of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a U.S. intelligence official told Reuters on Friday.

``The technical analysis tells us it is almost certainly bin Laden,'' the intelligence official said, adding the audio was of better quality than a tape released last November.

Another U.S. official said ``fairly sophisticated'' means were used to compare the recent audiotape with past samples known to be of bin Laden's voice.

U.S. intelligence analysts familiar with bin Laden's voice had earlier this week determined the tape was probably of the al Qaeda leader, but it could not be determined to a greater degree of probability until the technical analysis was conducted.

The United States has blamed al Qaeda for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that killed about 3,000 people.

The U.S. government recently raised its national alert to the second-highest level of orange after intercepted communications of suspected al Qaeda operatives and other intelligence information suggested they were poised to strike U.S. interests possibly as early as this week, U.S. officials have said.

'WALK-IN' INFORMATION

One U.S. official said on condition of anonymity that some of the information about the al Qaeda threats came from a ``walk in'' who approached U.S. authorities overseas with intelligence that corroborated other information that U.S. spy agencies were picking up.

That person, who was not identified, confessed later to lying to U.S. authorities about a threat to a Jewish-owned hotel in Virginia Beach, Virginia, after failing a polygraph question about that piece of information, the official told Reuters.

But other information from the ``walk in'' matched intelligence that was coming in from multiple sources and methods, and the basis for raising the threat level to orange was not substantially based on this individual's information, the official said.

The most recent bin Laden audiotape was released as the United States amasses thousands of troops in the Gulf region for a possible war against Iraq.

On the tape, bin Laden referred to the United States as ``crusaders,'' called on Muslims in Iraq to fight, and labeled the Iraqi government ``socialists'' and ``infidels'' but said they had common cause against America.

Some U.S. officials have seized on the references to Iraq in bin Laden's tape to promote their views that Baghdad has links to al Qaeda. Iraq denies any ties to al Qaeda.

CIA Director George Tenet said earlier this week at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that bin Laden was trying to energize followers in the latest audiotape and that U.S. intelligence agencies were analyzing it to determine whether it contained hidden signals to prompt an attack.

The U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was uncertain whether there was a signal in the recent tape aimed at prompting a specific attack.

The authenticity of the tape, however, showed that bin Laden was alive during the ``past several weeks,'' the official said.

U.S. forces have been hunting for the al Qaeda leader, and his fate has been the subject of much speculation since the Sept. 11 attacks. U.S. officials believe he is hiding somewhere in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Tenet noted this week that the airing of previous bin Laden tapes were followed by attacks on Western interests.

About two weeks after an audiotape believed to be from bin Laden was broadcast on Nov. 12, an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya was bombed and shoulder-fired missiles narrowly missed an Israeli-chartered plane leaving Mombasa.

Another bin Laden tape aired on Oct. 6 by al Jazeera was followed that same month with attacks on a French tanker off the coast of Yemen, U.S. Marines in Kuwait, and explosions in a nightclub strip in Bali that killed nearly 200 people.

Unidentified disease kills six Afghan children
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty 14 Feb 2003
At least six Afghan children under the age of five have died in Chahab District of Takhar Province, northeastern Afghanistan, from an unidentified disease suspected to be meningitis, the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran reported on 13 February. According to doctors, preliminary analyses have indicated that the disease is meningitis, but no conclusive diagnosis has been made. The report added that the outbreak of the disease is under control in the area. Since mid-November at least 300 children have died in northeastern Afghanistan as a result of different diseases, especially whooping cough, the Iranian radio station added. AT

U.S. Now Views Iran in More Favorable Light
A top official makes a distinction between the regime in Tehran and those of fellow 'axis of evil' members North Korea and Iraq.
By Robin Wright Los Angeles Times Staff Writer February 14, 2003
WASHINGTON The administration now distinguishes between Iran and the other countries that President Bush lumped together last year in an "axis of evil" and does not plan to target the Islamic Republic after the increasingly likely war in Iraq, a senior U.S. official said.

Despite growing concern about the regime's suspected nuclear weapons program, Iran's assistance in the war on terrorism, and the gradual evolution of liberal thought there puts it in a different category from Iraq or North Korea, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said in an interview. "The axis of evil was a valid comment, [but] I would note there's one dramatic difference between Iran and the other two axes of evil, and that would be its democracy. [And] you approach a democracy differently," Armitage said. "I wouldn't think they were next at all," he added.

Over the past 14 months, despite ongoing tensions and sometimes heated public rhetoric, U.S. and Iranian officials have held quiet discussions about a growing list of overlapping interests, American officials confirmed. The discussions, first on Afghanistan and now on Iraq, were often at international meetings, although informal contacts also have taken place, the sources said.

Iran shares a long border with Iraq, and it has long hosted Iraqi opposition groups now supported by the United States.

During four earlier administrations, Washington and Tehran have tried public and back-channel overtures that all failed to develop. But the deepening U.S. involvement on all of Iran's borders — in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Central Asia, along the Persian Gulf and now in Turkey and Iraq — has nudged the two countries into increasingly frequent discussions since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to U.S. officials.

The discussions, they add, don't mark the onset of a formal dialogue or a diplomatic thaw five years after Iranian President Mohammad Khatami proposed bringing down the "wall of mistrust" that has characterized relations since the 1979-81 hostage drama in which 52 Americans were held for 444 days.

In his State of the Union address this year, Bush said Tehran's religious regime "represses its people, pursues weapons of mass destruction and supports terror."

Yet the contacts have been tentatively encouraging, the sources added.

The United States hopes Iran will play the same kind of role it did during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the 2001 rout of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Tehran promised to remain neutral in the latter conflict and help conduct search-and-rescue operations if American pilots were shot down. The U.S. hopes it will do the same if there is war with Iraq.

Iran is among the countries opposed to U.S. military intervention in Iraq, especially without a U.N. mandate, according to Iranian officials.

At celebrations this week to mark the 24th anniversary of Iran's 1979 revolution, Khatami said an American attack on Iraq "is in line with [the United States'] unilateral policy and illegitimate interference in the future of other countries."

Khatami acknowledged, however, that opposition to the war "does not mean that we are content with the Iraqi regime." Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, triggering a war that lasted eight years and inflicted hundreds of thousands of Iranian casualties, some from Iraq's use of chemical weapons.

Tehran's main concerns, Iranian officials stress, have been with the postwar process and new Iraqi leadership.

Khatami, whose domestic reform agenda and overtures to the outside world have been stalled by religious hard-liners, also warned Washington this week not to intervene in Iran. "America has tested its luck once in confronting this nation by supporting the [former] shah's regime," he told tens of thousands at a Tehran rally. "I hope America would not ... test its luck once more."

The Nuclear Threat

Iran remains a divisive foreign policy issue within the Bush administration. U.S. concern has increased recently because of Tehran's plans

to build two nuclear reactors, which were first revealed by opposition groups in August, and Iran's announcement Sunday of plans to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and to mine uranium.

Washington has also been concerned about Iran's construction, with Russia, of a 1,000-megawatt light-water nuclear reactor in Bushehr, a project begun during the monarchy that was revived in the mid-1990s. Tehran says it needs to provide power for a population that has doubled since the revolution, but the United States believes that the reactors are a cover for obtaining sensitive technologies to develop a nuclear weapons program, the State Department said this week.

Construction of the two additional nuclear facilities could eventually help Iran produce weapons-usable fissile material, the State Department added.

A statement by State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called Iran's plans to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and mine uranium "in stark contrast" to an earlier agreement with Moscow for Russia to supply fresh fuel for the life of the Bushehr reactor and then ship the spent fuel back to Russia.

"These plans for a complete fuel cycle clearly indicate Iran's intention to build the infrastructure for a nuclear weapons capability," Boucher said.

As a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran can pursue peaceful uses of nuclear technology with oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Mohamed ElBaradei, IAEA director-general and chief nuclear inspector in Iraq, said this week that he will call for tighter monitoring of Iranian facilities when he visits Tehran later this month.

"We'll be interested in what he'll find out," Armitage said. "There are a lot of things we don't fully know.... It's the unknown that worries us in Iran."

At the same time, however, the United States considers Iran a less immediate threat than either Iraq or North Korea. U.S. intelligence estimates that North Korea already has a nuclear weapons capability and that Iraq has nuclear as well as chemical and biological weapons programs. Iran is still about seven years away from a nuclear capability, U.S. officials say.

Washington also remains concerned about the presence of Al Qaeda operatives in Iran, Armitage said. But the United States is uncertain about how much Khatami's government knows about or is involved in helping Al Qaeda agents, he said. And overall, Tehran has also done "some good things" in the war on terrorism since Sept. 11, he said.

Armitage also credited Iran for developing a new kind of "liberal thought" unusual in the region. "There's already a good bit of liberal thought," he said. "It's relatively liberal — not the way you or I would describe it, but liberal thought already exists."

We need to apply Somalia lessons in Afghanistan
Source: AlertNet 14 Feb 2003
Debarati Guha-Sapir is director of the WHO collaborating Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters and professor in the Epidemiology Unit at the University of Louvain School of Public Health in Belgium. She writes that the experience of Somalia in 1994 should have taught the international force in Afghanistan that mixing humanitarian goals with military goals is a recipe for disaster.
The international forces of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan are remodelling their military presence. Winning the hearts and minds of Afghans has now become part of the objective of the 22-nation coalition through the joint civilian-military operation task force. However, its expansion into humanitarian aid could lead to a minefield. It should stop now.

Up to 300 uniformed, armed civil affairs officers will be soon deployed on small nation-building initiatives, so-called "quick impact projects".

Humanitarian operators are not pleased. They complain that armed military personnel doubling as development workers confuse local warlords and put everybody in danger. A useful contribution of the military would be to stick to their roles and work at maintaining security, which is disastrous in most regions.

Personally, I find it difficult to understand. Is Somalia in 1994 so far back in time as to have disappeared from our collective memory? Are we really doomed to repeat our past mistakes because of our inability to learn from history?

The debacle in Somalia with the Unified Task Force (UNITAF) should have been a towering lesson for all concerned. Particularly so for those deciding for Afghanistan. UNITAF, like the Coalition Forces, was a non-U.N. military deployment of forces from some 30 countries operating under military, not U.N., command. It started as a manhunt for warlord Mohammed Farah Aideed, the villain of the piece.

Combat troops arrived, including U.S. Marines and Rangers, along with troops from Italy, Belgium, India, Pakistan and many other countries. The wording of their mandate was vague and it was interpreted variously by different contingents. An undefined enemy and the lack of rules of engagement or an exit strategy created confusion among the troops about the reasons for their presence.

The Delta Force, the crack contingent of the U.S. Army, was sent in on December 8, 1994, to be home for Christmas.

The whole sorry affair dragged on until October 1995. The situation deteriorated rapidly, with UNITAF forces becoming a third party in the local war, heavily involved in pitched battles in the streets of Mogadishu. Many soldiers died in humiliating circumstances and many more Somalis lost lives.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), under the mistaken impression that UNITAF was there to protect them, became increasingly resentful when that did not happen. Unpopular with the local population and actively resented by the NGOs, UNITAF decided to get involved in community-based humanitarian action to capture the hearts and minds of the locals.

It was an unqualified failure.

The NGOs, increasingly irritated by the various military contingents that were freely battling the Somalis behind barbed wire barricades in the streets of Mogadishu, became openly hostile when the "hearts and minds" operation began.

Military contingents competed with NGOs for humanitarian funds. Co-operation came to a virtual standstill and rapidly the U.N. Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) the U.N. civil humanitarian co-ordination body) the NGOs and the military were all at loggerheads.

PHENOMENALLY EXPENSIVE

Increasingly, it was discovered that having military personnel undertake development work was a phenomenally expensive affair.

The costs of keeping one fully trained soldier on the ground varied from about $180,000 a year in Sierra Leone to $500,000 in Kosovo compared with most NGO personnel, who are quasi voluntary.

Expertise in social development activities and dealing with civilians were also an issue. The military were not trained how to hold small children and vaccinate them, and even less able to work under civilian authority.

They were trained to fight and win, as a ranking U.S. Marine officer remarked to me in Mogadishu

He was right of course, but nobody listened to him. Nobody listened to experts from the region either, who repeatedly emphasised the need for a local approach to peacemaking rather than the international model of peace conferences with fixed agendas and timings.

After nearly two years of failures, fights, resignations and deaths, the troops left without having arrested Aideed or brought peace to the country.

Whatever success story I may have missed in the Somalia military intervention, their performance as humanitarian workers, was not one of them.

Less than 10 years since the Somalia debacle, the Afghanistan situation has unnerving elements of déjà vu. The security situation is unresolved, the military is taking on development projects and Osama Bin Laden is still at large.

So what are the Coalition Forces' chances of doing any better in Afghanistan? Admittedly, they would have an advantage over NGOs in public-works-type projects.

They could probably deliver a bridge to get children to school in the remote and rugged district of Parwan in weeks providing they did not have to drop everything for redeployment in the event of war with Iraq.

The NGOs would be slower and less well-organised. They would involve the community and discuss with the village elders time-consuming stuff. They would hire local staff and participate in a UN civilian co-ordination process.

For them, the process would probably be as important as the end since they are likely to stay long after the army is gone.

RANCOUR, CONTEMPT

The chances that the Coalition Forces', given recent history, would actually be welcomed by the population in their new role, seems remote.

By overstepping their boundaries of competence, they are also more likely to chalk up rancour, contempt and a bad press from the expatriate civil society.

The "humanitarian" military option is neither good value for money, nor politically sound.

For Afghanistan, things do not look so good in the international crisis arena. The Middle East is boiling over, Ethiopia is heading for a hunger crisis, North Korea is gearing up, Zimbabwe is sliding towards calamity. Ivory Coast already has.

The chances are that Afghanistan will shortly slip off the news altogether. The Afghan foreign minister is concerned, as well he might be. Aid prospects are not encouraging.

Compared with an average of $250 per capita per year provided to East Timor, Kosovo, Bosnia and Rwanda, Afghanistan has $75 this year and $42 for the next five years.

In June 2002, it had less than half of its the $1.8 m pledged. Pledges are notoriously ephemeral, wafting off when a new and more politically exigent crisis arises.

We should learn from the Somalia experience and give the army a clear military mandate and defined exit strategy.

We should not mix humanitarian goals with military goals; territorial ground battles between these two protagonists will invariably end in stalemate, loss of face and mutual recriminations.

We should tender public works to commercial engineering firms from the greater Asian region. We should get in policing forces working under civilian, rather than military, command to help improve security. We should firmly support the role of the United Nations as the single co-ordinating body. And we should listen to specialists who know the history, geography and culture of the region.

It is critical for Afghanistan, for the region and, indeed, for us all that we get it as right as we can this time.

General resigns after peacekeeping announcement
High-level official was angry about Kabul deployment, sources say
Toronto Star Feb. 14, 2003. 05:00 PM
OTTAWA (CP) - A top-level officer in the Defence Department has tendered his resignation after the decision to send a peacekeeping force to Afghanistan.
Maj.-Gen. Cameron Ross, director-general of international security policy, decided to quit the military "for personal reasons" after the announcement was made Wednesday, said Capt. Jason Steeves, a spokesman in Ross's office.

Ross will be leaving by June, officials said.

Sources told The Canadian Press that Ross quit over Ottawa's decision to send troops to a UN peacekeeping operation in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Canada could send as many as 2,800 troops on each of two rotations to the war-torn country, a military source said. Spokesmen have said only that Canada will contribute a brigade headquarters and a battlegroup without estimating the number of people.

Several sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said key senior military officials were not consulted about the decision, which some fear could cripple the financially strapped military.

The international force in Kabul, which now numbers about 4,000 soldiers, is dedicated to peacekeeping and Canadians are not expected to see offensive military action as they did for six months last year.

But it's still a dangerous mission. Peacekeepers have been attacked by rebels and 14 have died on duty since the United Nations created the force - seven of them German soldiers killed in a helicopter crash.

Some military officers view the government decision as a politically palatable one that might look good publicly but doesn't take into consideration the risks and demands it will place on soldiers and the Forces in general.

Among other things, a brigade-level headquarters could require a field hospital and air transport capabilities - at a high financial cost and largely on the army's back.

The army chief, Lt.-Gen. Mike Jeffery, was not told the defence minister was going to announce the peacekeeping commitment in the Commons until five minutes before he did so, sources said.

Rumours circulated Friday that Jeffery had quit, too. In fact, the general has reached mandatory retirement age and announced Friday morning that he will be leaving the Forces this summer.

There was no suggestion he was stepping down for any other reason.

"The announcement was made quickly, but certainly there was time to inform the military," said a government source.

Ross, who just turned 54, has been the man responsible for managing international defence and security relations.

Born in Ottawa, he returned to Canada in July 2000 after commanding the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force on the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel.

While there he was involved in the negotiations that resulted in the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.

He earlier commanded the army in Atlantic Canada and bases in Gagetown, N.B., and Edmonton, and, between 1989 and 1991, his regiment, Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians).

He was an armoured troop leader attached to the Canadian Airborne Regiment during the 1974 war in Cyprus and in reconnaissance and tank squadrons with the Royal Canadian Dragoons on NATO duty in Germany from 1978 to 1981.

A graduate of Royal Roads Military College in Victoria and the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., Ross also served in Angola, at the United Nations and as director of studies at the Canadian Forces Staff School in Toronto.

US denies 'prison torture' charges
Friday, 14 February, 2003, 08:55 GMT BBC News
US officials have denied allegations of torture after human rights groups called for "urgent intervention" to protect terror suspects detained at an American military base. Three human rights groups asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organisation of American States (OAS) "to prevent the unlawful treatment of men" being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

They cited physical abuse and sleep deprivation, and also pointed to a number of deaths and attempted suicides in custody.

The US State Department called the accusations of torture "ridiculous", while the Pentagon said the reports were being investigated.

Attempted suicides

The petition was launched by the New-York based Center for Constitutional Rights, the International Human Rights Law Group and the International Federation of Human Rights.

The human groups cited examples of mistreatment of prisoners held at Guantanamo and other US overseas detention facilities.

They also said urgent measures were needed to prevent the transfer of prisoners to foreign governments that have been known to practise torture.

"Torture is illegal in every country of the world," the groups said in a joint statement.

"Officials who condone it can and should be prosecuted in the United States and can be brought to justice wherever in the world they are found."

But a US spokesman for the task force in charge of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay denied the accusations.

The spokesman, Major Paul Caruso, was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that "all individual detainees here are treated humanely".

However, he acknowledged that there had been 15 attempted suicides among the inmates over the last year.

'Stress and duress'

Specific allegations of prisoner torture were first published in the Washington Post in December last year.

According to the paper, interrogators from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been subjecting Taleban and al-Qaeda suspects to "stress and duress" techniques of dubious legality.

Suspects at US facilities in Afghanistan and other foreign countries were sometimes held in uncomfortable positions for hours and deprived of sleep, the paper alleged.

It also said some of those who refused to co-operate were handed over to foreign governments that have been known to practise torture and other forms of mistreatment.

About 650 men have been at Guantanamo Bay since the detention base was established in January 2002.

They were detained during the US-led war in Afghanistan and are accused of links to al-Qaeda terror network and the former Taleban government.

Washington has refused to give them prisoner-of-war status which would offer rights under the Geneva Convention.

US should prove Al-Qaeda presence in Pakistan: Minister
Islamabad, Feb 14, IRNA Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has said that the United States should provide proof of its claim that Al-Qaeda elements are operating in Pakistan.

"At least we do not know where Al-Qaeda exists in Pakistan. If the United States knows it should tell us as to where it exists," the minister said in a radio interview.

He said that the Pakistan-Afghan border was geographically typical and that is why Pakistan was once the blue eyed of the United States and whatever was taking place on the border was supported by Americans.

"Now, when the circumstances have taken a turn, our policy is quite clear. We are neither with Al-Qaeda nor we have any information that Al-Qaeda exists in Pakistan. We came to know about Al-Qaeda after 9/11. We do have a clear and solid policy in this respect", he said.

When asked about the comments of head of Islamic parties alliance Shah Ahmad Noorani supporting the recent message of Osama Bin Laden telecast by TV Channel Al-Jazeera, he said, "The alliance is presently in opposition and it is their own thinking. Whatever, they want to say they are free to say but as the spokesman of the government I shall say that we do not support terrorism in any form and any where in the world nor shall we do so in future".

He said Pakistan can not allow any one to use its soil for terrorism.

"We are committed to the decision of the Security Council and whatever decision it takes will be supported by us".

Replying to a question of Iraq, Sheikh Rashid said Pakistan is in favour of taking the issue to UN Security Council whose decision will be the policy of Pakistan. "Whatever the United States says was not right. If the US had credible information and evidences, it should bring it into our notice", he added.