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Bagram, Afghanistan- Hajimumin Hamza walked through a long, dark corridor, looking at the area as carefully as he had never seen before. Today, the 36-year-old bearded man with a black turban and traditional two-piece clothing is a guide for Taliban fighters in places where he would rather forget their names. His eyes stopped on a single chair on the path.
“They used to tie us to this chair, our hands and feet, and then gave us electric shocks. Sometimes they also used it to beat us,” said Hamza, who recounted his experience during the fall of Kabul in 2017 and last month. The torture he suffered during his imprisonment in Bagram Prison, when he managed to escape.
The United States established the Parwan Detention Center at the end of 2001, called Bagram, or Guantanamo Prison in Afghanistan, to house armed fighters after the Taliban rebelled after they stepped down in a military invasion.
The facilities at Bagram Air Base in Parwan Province are temporary. but it is not the truth. In the days before the Taliban took over Afghanistan on August 15, it held more than 5,000 prisoners until the gate was forcibly opened.
Sultan was sentenced to prison in Bagram from 2014 to August 2021. He said that he lost his tooth in a process that was later called enhanced interrogation technology, which rights groups said was equivalent to torture and violated international law. . The 42-year-old didn’t have a last name, and opened his mouth to show hurt.
Geneva Convention
Taliban members passed by a large plaque on the prison wall, which read the English and Dari texts of the Geneva Convention, but no one wanted to read it.
“The following acts shall be prohibited at any time and any place (…). Violence to life and person, especially all kinds of murder, cruelty, cruel treatment and torture,” it wrote.
But they all know that in Bagram, none of these rules apply. As the former prisoner said, if you enter Bagram, there is no way out. If you are not an enemy fighter before landing, you will definitely leave as one.
None of the thousands of prisoners who passed through the site during the 20 years of the American War received prisoner-of-war status.
Former prisoners and Taliban fighters inspect chairs used to torture prisoners [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]In 2002, after the death of two detained Afghan prisoners, the center was censored and seven American soldiers faced charges. However, the abuse continued and soon became part of the “Bagram Manual”.
Hamza remembers more than just electric shocks. Hang upside down for a few hours. Water and tear gas poured on the sleeping prisoners from the iron railings on the cell ceiling. Was kept in a small, windowless, separate cell for weeks or months, without lights or with bright light bulbs turned on 24/7.
“Black Jail”
According to former prisoners, none of those who have experienced solitary confinement in the so-called “black prisons” that the United States denies exists, none of them make the cells mentally healthy.
“There are many different forms of torture, including sexual abuse. They use devices to make us less human,” Hamza said, but did not provide details. “Psychologically, it’s hard for me to recall everything that happened. The torture was mostly carried out by Afghans and sometimes by Americans. But the orders came from the United States.”
After the American invasion, Hamza joined the Taliban at the age of 16. In his eyes, the Americans are the invaders who occupy his land. He believes that fighting them is his duty as a Muslim and Afghan. After completing the course at the Agricultural Department of Kabul University, he will receive training in bomb and improvised explosive device manufacturing.
Hamza’s former cell [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]He was detained in the summer of 2017 and was first transferred to Safariad prison in Kabul. He was then sent to two other detention facilities, and finally to Bagram four months later. As he said, he was tortured in all the prisons he passed. In the end, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
“85% of Bagram are Taliban, the rest are Islamic State [ISIL, or ISIS] member. When the U.S. and Afghan forces do not find any Taliban, they will arrest innocent people. Due to lack of evidence, some of them were detained for many years before being released,” Hamza said.
The former prisoner walked through the cell of the prison barracks with a group of Taliban and took photos of what was left. Clothes, personal belongings and tea cups were scattered on the floor. According to the prisoners, these cells can accommodate up to 34 prisoners. There are texts in Pashto and Dari on the walls.
“People are writing memories, like diaries. We do this because we want to leave testimony in case the Americans kill us. Let people know that we are here,” Hamza said.
A typical orange prison uniform and a cup hung on the wall of the cell.A cell can hold up to 34 prisoners. There is not enough space, so many prisoners used to hang their personal belongings on the wall [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]“In the beginning, we only had orange clothes, but we opposed this color, and then we got white and black, more traditional clothes. One piece of clothing per person. We only had one blanket each, even though the winter was very cold. Sometimes we couldn’t Do not share them with new prisoners. Some people waited for months to get theirs.”
Prison rules
In front of the cell, a large plaque explained the prison rules in Dari and English.
Rule 1: Throwing is prohibited. Do not throw or attack guards with any objects or liquids. You will not throw anything at my guard.
Rule 3: No spitting anywhere. You will not spit at my guards or other detainees.
Rule 7: Disobey. You will follow all the orders of the guards. Without exception.
But the rules are not always followed.
“I bought a phone from a guard for 1,000 Afghanis ($11.50), and we found a hole in the wall, and when we were connected, we called,” Hamza said. “I used it for two years. It was discovered several times, but I always managed to get another one.”
It was the phone that finally helped the prisoner escape. As the U.S. military left the base without notifying the Afghan government on June 2, the Taliban stepped up their military offensive, and Bagram was almost unsupervised.
“One of us felt uncomfortable and we were asking for help. But no one came. Only silence,” Hamza said. “This is when we decided to escape. We broke the bar with a metal plate serving food.”
A Taliban fighter inspects the solitary confinement room in the “black jail” [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]After leaving the cell, the prisoners took up the weapons left by the US military and captured the remaining Afghan guards. They eventually released them and the other prisoners.
“More than 5,000 prisoners escaped, but I’m not sure how many. The corridor was full of people. I picked up my phone, found a place to charge it, and made a call,” Hamza said.
Before long, the younger brother came to pick him up. But the reality outside is strange.
“When we went out, we couldn’t recognize anything, especially the children. We spent a lot of time only with adults, and we never met our family. People, cars, everything seemed unfamiliar,” Hamm Za said.
“We are not like Americans”
This is the first time Hamza has returned to prison after escaping. A prison he never thought he would leave. He walked across the site of the former U.S. Air Force base, where the personal belongings, food, and armor of soldiers and prisoners were messy, and he said he was happy that he was free now.
The prisoners scribbled messages on the wall [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]He did not specify what happened to the Islamic State fighters who served with the Taliban.
About 65 kilometers south of Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi sits on a chair in the prison office. The Taliban leader was recently appointed as the head of the Afghan prison system, which is the same function he had under the leadership of the former Taliban government in the 1990s. He returned to Afghanistan after 20 years of exile in Pakistan, and many Taliban officials obtained refugee status after the US invasion.
“Our actions will show that we do not say that they support human rights as Americans do, but have committed terrible crimes. There will be no more torture and starvation,” Turabi said, explaining that the new prison staff will include Member of the old system and the Taliban Mujahideen.
Three Taliban members walking around Bagram Air Force Base [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]“We have a constitution, but we will revise it and revise the civil and criminal laws and civilian rules based on these changes. There will be far fewer prisoners because we will follow the rules of Islam, the rules of humanity.”
Turabi did not comment that four people were killed during the Kabul protests on September 10, and there is no growing evidence that journalists and civilians are still being tortured in prisons.
When asked whether the new judicial system would reflect the previous Taliban order, he answered without hesitation.
“People are worried about some of our rules, such as cutting off hands. But this is a public requirement. If you cut off a person’s hand, he won’t commit the same crime again. People are now corrupt, extorting money from others, accepting bribes, “He said.
“We will bring peace and stability. Once we set the rules, no one dares to break them.”
In the corridor of Bagram prison, there is a single chair used to torture prisoners [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]
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