Karzai orders Afghan prisoner review

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered a review of the cases of every Taliban suspect in the country’s prisons. He said that where evidence against suspects was doubtful, they must be released.

Mr Karzai’s announcement of prisoner case reviews is the first official response to the national peace conference, which ended on Friday.

The conference discussed measures to promote reconciliation, including negotiations with militant factions, and recommended the release of Taliban suspects being held in Afghan police custody and by the US military if they were being held on “inaccurate statements or unsubstantiated allegations”.

It is unclear how many people the review will affect. Hundreds of prisoners are accused of Taliban involvement. A committee will be set up to oversee the investigation of each case. The president’s office did not specify if the review included prisoners detained in US-run prisons. However, NATO’s top civilian spokesman in Afghanistan said they would cooperate with the government.

The head of international forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, told the BBC

“We’ve already been doing that for a number of months, doing a very effective detainee review board process that has… participants from the individual’s village, and we’ve released a large number around the country, and that’s going very well.”

Pakistan President signs ICCPR and Convention against Torture

President Asif Ali Zardari signed on Thursday 3 June two recently ratified international conventions, adding Pakistan to the list of countries which have ratified all international conventions related to good governance, sustainable development and human rights.

The two conventions are: The international convention on civil and political rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The cabinet in a meeting on March 24 had ratified the conventions with certain reservations.

The Instrument of Ratification signed by the President will now be sent to the United Nations. The Instrument of Ratification signed by the president contains reservations protecting national rights relating to (a) Islamic law and ideology (b) issue of self-determination, (c) anything repugnant to the provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan.

Earlier in April India Cabinet approved a proposal to introduce the Prevention of Torture Bill 2010 in the Parliament. This is a step towards ratification of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, signed by India in 1997 but never enforced because of the lack of a law in the Indian Constitution.

Images of missile and cluster munitions suggest US involvement in fatal attack in Yemen

Amnesty International has released images of a US-manufactured cruise missile that carried cluster munitions, apparently taken following an attack on an alleged al-Qaida training camp in in the Abyan area in the south of Yemen on 17 December 2009. The attack killed 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children, and 14 alleged members of al-Qaida.

The Yemeni government has said its forces alone carried out the attack. Shortly after the attack some US media reported alleged statements by unnamed US government sources who said that US cruise missiles launched on presidential orders had been fired at two alleged al-Qa’ida sites in Yemen.

“Based on the evidence provided by these photographs, the US government must disclose what role it played in the al-Ma’jalah attack, and all governments involved must show what steps they took to prevent unnecessary deaths and injuries,” said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

UN: Ombudsperson appointed to review individual delisting requests

On 7 June, the UN Secretary General appointed Judge Kimberly Prost (Canada) as Ombudsperson under the Security Council’s sanctioning scheme.

The appointment was made in implementation of Security Council resolution 1904(2009), which created the Ombudsperson position to assist the Sanction Committee in delisting requests received from individuals and entities subject to the Security Council’s relevant sanctions measures against Al-Qaida and the Taliban. Judge Kimberly Prost recently served as judge ad litem with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

(H/T ICJ)