KABUL - President Hamid Karzai called yesterday for the United States to hand over its biggest military prison in Afghanistan within one month, despite repeated warnings that Afghan institutions are woefully unprepared to detain or try suspected terrorists.
Karzai said that Afghan government investigators found violations of the Afghan constitution and international human rights conventions at the prison, which houses about 2,600 inmates near Bagram Airfield. He did not provide details about the alleged violations, but said in a statement that they constituted a “breach of Afghan sovereignty.’’
The transfer of the prison, called the Parwan detention center, and its detainees is regarded by both Afghans and Americans as a critical marker of the war’s endgame, a sign that Afghan officials are ready to inherit institutions essential to the nation’s future. US officials said in a memorandum two years ago that they expected the prison to be transferred in early 2012. Karzai interpreted that timeline as being firm, but US officials point to a caveat in the document: that it was subject to “demonstrated capacity.’’
The country’s judicial system has remained weak, US officials said, raising concerns that Afghans would be unable to prosecute or detain the large number of insurgents captured by NATO forces and allow dangerous Taliban fighters to slip through the cracks. In July 2011, officials told the Washington Post that the United States would be unable to relinquish authority at the prison until at least 2014, just as the last foreign troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan.
“At this point, the Afghans don’t have the legal framework or the capacity to deal with violence being inflicted on the country by the insurgency,’’ one US official said then. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
Yesterday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: “We’re going to continue to work with the Afghan government to implement the transition that we have both agreed needs to happen of detention operations in Afghanistan. We need to do this in a manner that is maximally responsible.’’ She said she could not comment further.
The US military has detained suspected insurgents at facilities in the area for about a decade. Most have been kept without trial.