U.S.

Feeding The Prisoners

By Francie Grace

April 22, 2002 / 3:24 PM EDT / CBS

As British and U.S. forces in Afghanistan continue their campaign to clear out any Taliban or al Qaeda resistance, and ex-king Mohammad Zaher Shah becomes reacquainted with the homeland he left 29 years ago, the government is having a hard time keeping up with the after-effects of the war that put it in power.

One big problem has been the feeding of thousands of prisoners.

Sunday, the International Red Cross - which last week began an emergency feeding program for some 500 inmates on the verge of starvation at Shibergan prison - expanded its mission to provide food for all 2,700 men being held at the jail.

The Red Cross stresses the special feedings are only temporary and that responsibility for maintaining humane conditions at Shibergan lies with Afghanistan's interim administration.

Authorities at the same time Sunday set up four large tents and moved some inmates into the tents and out of sweltering cells where they slept in shifts because they were packed in too tightly to all lie down at once.

Abdullah, a Taliban foot soldier who has lost 33 pounds since being imprisoned at Shibergan five months ago, says the tents are a big improvement.

"It's very good. When we were in the cells we couldn't sleep at night," said Abdullah, as he struggled to tie a strap around his waist to keep his pants from falling from his emaciated frame.

The administration's envoy to the region is Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the main warlord in the north who is also a deputy defense minister.

The Red Cross "is talking not only at a regional level but national and international level to address what is a rather pathetic situation for a group of prisoners who are suffering miserably," said Simon Brooks, head of the Red Cross delegation in the north.

Those living in the tents are allowed to move freely in small yards surrounded by coils of razor wire and barbed wire fences, and have a working pump for water and newly dug latrines. On Sunday afternoon, prisoners in one of the Pakistani tents kneeled down together to pray.

"We feel like we've been freed," said Wahid Ahmad, an 18-year-old Pakistani, who was moved here after an uprising in November of prisoners at the Qalai Janghi fortress, also in northern Afghanistan.

CIA agent Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed in that fighting, the first U.S. casualty of the war, and the American John Walker Lindh was discovered among Taliban and al-Qaida suspects detained there.

The commander at the prison, Jura Bek, said he welcomed the Red Cross help.

"We couldn't afford to do anything here," he said. "In the past five months we gave them all that we had."

Authorities have said they provided prisoners with two meals a day, consisting mainly of a gruel of mushy rice.

Barbara Troesch, a Red Cross nutritionist, said the prisoners received just 600 to 800 calories of food a day, which she said was "probably what you have for breakfast." A normal intake is around 2,100 to 2,400 calories a day, she said.

Amir Muhammad, 19, a Taliban captured in fighting outside the northern city of Kunduz, looked longingly through the bars of his window at the nearby tents as flies buzzed from his cell. He said there were 43 people living with him in a room meant for a third that many, and all were sick from the food and dirty conditions.

"I'd be so happy if they carried me to that tent - we'll get a new life when we get there," he said.

There have been several releases of prisoners, including a few hundred freed by Dostum last month. U.S. military investigators have also talked to some prisoners to find Taliban leaders or detainees with ties to al-Qaida, and Bek said more than 150 were handed over to the Americans.

But other than that, the prisoners' situation remains unclear with no one really knowing whether they'll be freed, put on trial or just live out their days in the packed cells for the foreseeable future.

Few guards are visible around the barbed-wire enclosure for the tents, and there also aren't many to be seen around the 16-foot-high walls at the prison, located 75 miles west of the northern capital of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The risk of any kind of prison uprising seemed remote over the past months in the prisoners' weakened state. Bek insisted Sunday that the situation is still secure with 400 guards on duty, and that the newly fed and strengthening prisoners aren't going to stage a repeat of what happened at Qalai Janghi.

"All the prisoners promised me they will never escape from here," he said.

In other war-releated developments:

Some of Kabul's poor say times are better now, with the Taliban gone. But aid to the impoverished is still slow in coming. Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai says most countries haven't paid their promises of relief yet.

Leaflets threatening death to parents who send their children to school have been found in Kandahar, once the spiritual headquarters of the deposed Taliban regime, which restricted education.

U.S. military planes did their own sort of leaflet campaign over the weekend. The paper they dropped on southern Afghanistan was money, however, instead of leaflets. The cash sent raining down was Afghani currency. It's not the first time - in February, Afghani currency was distributed in envelopes adorned with a picture of President Bush.

U-S officials think the latest Osama bin Laden tapes are old, and were likely filmed last year. They also believe the tapes have been sent to Middle East television stations in an attempt by bin Laden followers to keep his message alive while his fate remains unknown.

Federal prosecutors allege the detained founder of an Islamic charity based in suburban Chicago met with Al Qaeda-linked terror groups outside the United States. Immigration court transcripts show that prosecutors accuse Lebanese-born Rabih Haddad of meeting with the groups more than a decade ago.

The domestic partner of a man killed in the September 11th attacks is in the early stages of filing a claim with the federal victim compensation fund. Keith Bradkowski's partner of 11 years Jeff Collman, died on the first plane to strike the World Trade Center. Bradkowski will likely have to fight for the compensation, and his claim is being watched closely by gay and lesbian rights organizations.