US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and Afghan President Hamid Karzai have agreed to move quickly to smooth over a festering dispute over the transfer of the Bagram prison to the Afghan government.
“In a telephone conversation with President Karzai, the US defence secretary asked for a week time for a complete transfer of the Bagram Prison to Afghanistan sovereignty,” Karzai’s office said in a statement.
President Karzai accepted Hagel’s demand, stressing the US must see to it that the Afghan government took full control of the detention centre in central Parwan province this time around. Delayed several times, the jail transfer must happen in line with Afghanistan’s sovereignty, the statement said.
Meanwhile, in Washington the Pentagon spokesman said the issue was discussed when the pair spoke by telephone about issues of shared concern.
“They agreed to use the next week to conduct intensive work with a view to concluding an agreement that fully recognises Afghan sovereignty and our mutual interests in security of the Afghan people and our respective forces,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said in a brief statement.
The transfer of the Bagram prison in northern Kabul was originally planned for 2009 but has been repeatedly delayed due to disagreements over control of the detainees. The US military had planned to hand over its control during Hagel’s three-day visit last week, but put it off again.
US commanders view some detainees as very dangerous while Karzai said he would set free all those detainees who have proven innocent once the prison facility is formally turned over.
The Afghan president suggested on Tuesday that the government might act unilaterally to secure control of the prison.
Karzai has conditioned the signing of a long-term agreement, which Washington is seeking for some US troops to remain in the South Asian nation after most of NATO and American combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014, on the prison’s transfer.
Earlier, the Afghanistan Ulema Council also asked US forces to transfer the detention facility to Afghan control and leave the centralprovince of Maidan Wardak as soon as possible.
The council supported President Hamid Karzai’s call for the US military to transfer the jail’s affairs to his administration, saying it had been a long-standing demand of the people of Afghanistan.
It added the Afghans had long been urging the US and NATO forces to stop bombing homes of defenseless civilians, night raids and arrests on dubious charges. “Afghanistan is a sovereign Islamic nation with a long history of rendering sacrifices to defend its independence, protect its religion and resist attempts at its enslavement,” the council said.
It called President Karzai’s demand for the handover the Bagram jail in central Parwan province north of Kabul to the Afghans and withdrawing from Wardak the voice of the nation.
