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for which the Taliban claimed responsibility. In September 2008, there was a suicide attack on a
United Nations convoy in Spin Boldak in which two World Health Organization doctors
involved in the polio-eradication campaign and one UNAMA driver were killed.
24. Insurgents have also targeted private transport companies and construction workers.
According to the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, an umbrella group of
non-governmental organizations, the situation has “forced many aid agencies to restrict the scale
and scope of their development and humanitarian operations”. This effectively means that
women and children as well as vulnerable people in need of assistance are unable to realize their
right to receive life-saving humanitarian support and basic social services, including health and
education in particular for girls. In this regard, it is essential to clarify the scale and nature of the
humanitarian case load in order to identify those who are most in need of assistance.
D. Conflict-related detention
25. The situation of persons arrested and detained in relation with the conflict remains of
concern, in particular in view of the legal uncertainties regarding the basis for their continued
detention. Detention of persons by international military forces in their operations is governed by
the following rules: they may hold detainees for only 96 hours; the International Committee of
the Red Cross must be informed; after 96 hours, detainees are to be either released or transferred
to the Afghan authorities, generally, the National Department of Security (NDS). Some countries
have signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the Government regulating the
transfer of such detainees and have obtained diplomatic assurances regarding their treatment,
including that no transferee will be subject to the death penalty. The MoUs are not identical, but
all provide for diplomatic representatives of that country, the Afghan Independent Human Rights
Commission (AIHRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to have access
to transferred detainees. There is however little information on the conditions and treatment of
such detainees. NDS continues to operate without a public legal framework clearly defining its
powers of investigation, arrest and detention, and rules applicable to its detention facilities.
UNAMA has received complaints from individuals previously detained by NDS that they were
tortured. The treatment of detainees by NDS, including those transferred from international
military forces’ control, raises questions concerning responsibility of the relevant troop
contributing countries under principles of international humanitarian and human rights law.
26. Individuals detained by Operation Enduring Freedom are held in a detention facility in
Bagram Airbase governed by United States Department of Defense Directives. Detainees have
no right to legal counsel or to trial before a court established by law and their status as
combatants is to be determined by the Enemy Combatant Review Board. If qualified as an
“enemy combatant”, detainees can only be released through the National Reconciliation
Programme, transferred to the Ministry of Defense for prosecution by the Government of
Afghanistan. Nationals of third countries are allegedly transferred to Guantánamo Bay Naval
Base. Some individuals have reportedly been in detention at Bagram for as long as five years and
some have allegedly been subjected to torture. According to former detainees at Bagram, there
are approximately 630 detainees held there. ICRC has access to detainees, while UNAMA does
not. At the end of 2008, Bagram authorities agreed to permit visitation rights to the relatives of
certain detainees.
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