17 Afghan detainees return home

KABUL, Afghanistan — Seventeen Afghan detainees released from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were formally handed over to Afghan authorities here on Tuesday. Some of the men publicly denounced their imprisonment as unjust and condemned the American and Afghan governments for a system that is holding hundreds of prisoners in limbo outside their home countries.

In a brief ceremony, Chief Justice Fazil Hadi Shinwari told the 17 men that they were free to return home, and he tried to reconcile them to the idea their imprisonment was something sent from God. Some prisoners in Guantanamo were guilty and deserved to be imprisoned, he said, but others were innocent victims of false accusations or military mistakes, or were duped into supporting terrorism.

The Pentagon said the Afghans were released after a tribunal review determined they should no longer be considered enemy combatants.

Several of the Afghans said in interviews Tuesday that they had been told by U.S. officers that they were being freed because they were innocent of any crime.

Three of the detainees insisted on taking the microphone and denounced the policy of detaining Afghans outside Afghanistan. One of them, Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, a former journalist who said he had spent 3 1/2 years in Guantanamo after being arrested with his brother in Pakistan, disagreed openly with the chief justice that some deserved to be in Guantanamo.

"If we have the government, our government should bring the criminals here," he said. "They should be imprisoned here and should be punished here. Why were the Afghans given to the Americans?"

He also criticized the government of President Hamid Karzai for not looking after its own citizens. Pakistan had succeeded in repatriating all but three of its nationals from Guantanamo, but many Afghans remain there in custody.

One detainee said 120 Afghans were still in the prison camp. About 300 Afghans have been released in batches over the last two years.

"In Cuba, our people are there without destiny," said another detainee, Abdurahman, who said he was among the very first prisoners to arrive at the camp nearly 3 1/2 years ago after his capture in northern Afghanistan in 2001.

The third detainee to take the microphone, Gul Zaman, from the eastern province of Khost, said that he, his father, a cousin and a neighbor were arrested one night 3 1/2 years ago although they had no connection with the Taliban or Afghan guerrilla parties. He was released and told he was innocent and could go home, he said, but his father and the others, who are very old, are still being detained.

The former detainees were taken away under escort, and were to stay the night in a government guest house where they would be reunited with their families, government officials said. The officials said the men would be given new clothes, turbans and travel money on Wednesday and allowed to go home.