As the United States and its NATO allies get ready to downscale the ten-year-long military operation in Afghanistan, a United Nations report has documented rampant torture by the Afghani government against suspects. At this point, it’s difficult to determine whether or not the torture and interrogation methods resulted in any fruitful intelligence. 

According to the New York Times:

 Suspects are hung by their hands, beaten with cables and in some cases their genitals are twisted until they lose consciousness in detention facilities run by the Afghan intelligence service and the Afghan national police.

NATO is taking the report seriously; as a result of a preliminary version of the UN report, NATO does not give all suspects over to the Afghanis. The official line from the Afghanis, however, is extremely different from the report. The Afghani government is claiming that they don’t believe in or condone the use of torture. That said, the Afghani government has admitted that that flaws exist within the system which will be investigated. 

The report was written after interviewers worked with former and current detainees within Afghanistan to determine what, if any, torture methods were used to extract confessions from the suspects. According to the report itself, it appears that as many as 46% of the detainees in Afghanistan had suffered from torture while they were being detained by Afghani authorities. 

Nothing I read about the torture in Afghanistan explained NATO’s position about the future in Afghanistan once NATO’s forces have left the country. Currently, NATO is not turning over many suspects to Afghanistan authorities because of a belief that torture does not result in accurate military intelligence and as a result of Afghanistan’s poor track record with their detainees in regards to torture. I have no idea how NATO will attempt to control the amount of torture in Afghanistan once NATO has left the nation of Afghanistan and ceased military operations there. 

Afghanistan has had so many wars on their own soil that it’s difficult to imagine that the Afghani military and intelligence officers will just suddenly stop using the ruthless tactics that they have used in the past. Recent wars in Afghanistan include a ten-year conflict with the former Soviet Union, a civil war, and now the present war. 

The rise of the Taliban within Afghanistan did not do too much to help the country of Afghanistan either.