The full hand over of Bagram prison control from United States to Afghanistan was canceled on Saturday, throwing into doubt an agreement between the two countries on custody of the remaining Afghan prisoners still being held by American forces, The Associatd Press reported.
According to reports the two nations have yet to resolve thorny issues such as whether Afghans can be held without trial and whether the U.S. will have the power to block the release of detainees it considers particularly dangerous.
The American officials were reportedly upset with Mr. Karzai over remarks he made in a speech on Wednesday in which he criticized the Americans’ slowness on the detention issue and promised to release many of the prisoners as soon as the transfer was complete.
However there was no official word on why the transfer was canceled. Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi quoted by Associated Press said, “The ceremony is not happening today.”
Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan in an email said, “We continue to work out the details on the transfer of the Detention Facility in Parwan to the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.”
“We intend to proceed with the transfer once we have reached full agreement,” Graybeal said.
