U.S. military names general to carry out review of Afghan jails after news of two more deaths

Saturday, May 22nd 2004, 11:34 am

By: News On 6

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) _ The U.S. military on Saturday named a long-serving brigadier general to carry out a review of its secretive Afghan prisons, while officials in Washington revealed that they were looking into the deaths of two more Afghans.

Brig. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby, deputy operational commander at the U.S. military's main base at Bagram, north of Kabul, will carry out the ``top to bottom'' review and deliver a report by mid-June, spokesman Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager said.

The commander of the 20,000 U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Barno, ordered the review earlier this month in response to the growing scandal about prisoner abuse in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jacoby will visit each of the about 20 American detention centers, including the main jail at Bagram and others at smaller bases around the country ``to ensure internationally accepted standards of handling detainees are being met,'' Mansager said.

``He will ensure facilities are adequate, procedures are in accordance with the spirit of the Geneva Conventions and are being followed correctly and fully, and that staffing and capabilities are adequate to the task,'' Mansager said.

The U.S. recently announced two new criminal investigations into allegations of abuse by former prisoners in Afghanistan, where it is also under pressure over the unexplained deaths of prisoners in custody.

An investigation into the deaths of two Bagram inmates in December 2002 _ both ruled homicides after military autopsies _ is still incomplete. The CIA inspector general is investigating the death of another detainee in eastern Kunar province in June 2003.

A senior military official told reporters in Washington on Friday that two other deaths in custody in Afghanistan were also under scrutiny _ one in southern Helmand province last November, and another when a detainee was shot when he lunged for a weapons.

Mansager said he was unaware of either of the new cases.

Jacoby, a decorated West Point graduate who has served in the army for nearly 26 years, arrived in Afghanistan in April. His review is to be independent of the investigations into alleged abuse and the deaths in custody.