U.S., Afghanistan Agree to Turnover of Parwan Detention Facility

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 9, 2012 — An agree­ment signed here today sets in motion the trans­fer of the deten­tion facil­i­ty in Par­wan, Afghanistan, to Afghan con­trol.

Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, com­man­der of U.S. and coali­tion forces in Afghanistan, and Afghan Defense Min­is­ter Abdul Rahim War­dak signed a mem­o­ran­dum that Allen called “an impor­tant step for­ward in our strate­gic part­ner­ship negotiations.” 

The agree­ment, the gen­er­al said, is in keep­ing with rec­om­men­da­tions of a nation­al meet­ing of Afghan elders and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers con­duct­ed in the fall and the desires of Afghan Pres­i­dent Hamid Karzai. 

“It is yet anoth­er exam­ple of the progress of tran­si­tion, and our efforts to ensure that Afghanistan can nev­er again be a safe haven for ter­ror­ists,” Allen added. “I want to thank Pres­i­dent Karzai and Min­is­ter War­dak for their lead­er­ship and their coun­sel through­out this process.” 

As part of the tran­si­tion process, Afghanistan will imple­ment a legal frame­work to ensure the humane and secure deten­tion of per­sons who threat­en the peo­ple of Afghanistan, in accor­dance with inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law, Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force offi­cials said. The mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing would trans­fer man­age­ment of the deten­tion facil­i­ty as soon as the Afghans appoint a com­man­der of deten­tion operations. 

This first step is part of a process that will give the Afghan defense min­istry full con­trol of the facil­i­ty with­in six months while pro­tect­ing U.S. inter­na­tion­al and domes­tic legal oblig­a­tions regard­ing detainees, offi­cials said. Under the agreement’s terms, the Unit­ed States would pro­vide ongo­ing sup­port and advice to the Afghan com­man­der for up to a year. 

Source:
From an Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force News Release