"I swear to God, those photos shown on television of the prison in Iraq — those things happened to me as well," said Siddiqui (courtesy of the New York Times)

CAIRO, May 12 (IslamOnline.net) – A former Afghan police colonel accused the U.S. forces of torturing and sexually abusing him while in several U.S.-run detention centers across  Afghanistan.

Sayed Nabi Siddiqui, 47, told The New York Times Wednesday, May 12, that more than once  U.S. soldiers inserted their fingers into his anus.

He even recalled that in one incident one of them touched his penis and asked, "Why is this unhappy?"

He showed the American daily a Defense Department letter detailing his stay, as detainee BT676, in a jail at the Bagram air base outside Kabul from August 13 to 20 and his release after 40 days.

Siddiqui said he was subjected to the worst abuses when detained for 22 days at the American firebase at Gardez, where U.S.infantry and Special Forces are based.

He then spent 12 days at the Kandahar air base in southern  Afghanistan, and finally about a week in Bagram.

He complained of having been humiliated repeatedly during his detention in all three places.

"They were taunting me and laughing and asking very rude questions, like which animal did I like having sex with, and which animal do you want us to bring in for you to have sex with," Siddiqui said.

"They were mimicking the sounds of a sheep, a cow and a donkey," he said from his home in the village of Sheikho, on the edge of the eastern town of  Gardez.

"And asking which one I would like to have sex with. They kept insisting, and they were kicking me so much that eventually I said a cow."

"And they made insults about our women," Siddiqui said, charging the American interrogator had taunted him.

"Do you know that your wife and daughter are prostitutes now?" the interrogator asked, through a translator.

"The Americans were asking this and the translators were translating, and they were all laughing," he recalled.

Siddiqui complained he was wrongly detained on July 15 after he reported police corruption and that someone then accused him of being a member of the ousted Taliban.

But he was later released after the Americans decided he posed "no threat to the U.S. Armed Forces or its interest in  Afghanistan".

'I Swear'

Siddiqui's account came as the United States is facing another tough situation over photos of Iraqi detainees being tortured and sexually abused by its troops.

"I swear to God, those photos shown on television of the prison in  Iraq — those things happened to me as well," the former officer said.

U.S. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld offered his "deepest apology" and took responsibility in a Congress hearing Friday, May 7, for the prison abuse scandal.

Similar Cases

Although the Times said Siddiqui's account could not be independently verified, it underlined that members of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission reported similar cases of abuse.

The commission members, who attended the interview, said Siddiqui's story matched the one given to them last fall, shortly after his release and long before the "sadistic" abuse at the Abu Ghraib near  Baghdad came to light.

A member of the human rights commission said members had mentioned details of Siddiqui's case to American military officials here last year, the Times said.

The commission, which was set up by the transitional government of President Hamid Karzai in 2002 and gets money from the U.S. Congress and other foreign donors, has received 44 complaints against various violations by American forces in recent months.

Several detainees have complained of rough and degrading treatment, including being stripped naked and doused with cold water, even before the pictures of prisoner abuse emerged in Iraq, the Times said.

Afghan military and police officials say they have heard similar stories from detainees and their families, it added.

'Immediate' Probe

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the U.S. military opened a formal investigation into the deaths of two Afghans at Bagram's closely guarded jail in December 2002.

Military autopsies found that both men died of blunt force injuries, it said, adding that a third Afghan died last June at a holding facility in eastern Kunar province.

Facing queries about Siddiqui's case, the U.S. embassy in Kabul issued a statement to announce the immediate investigation into the complaint.

Amnesty International published a report in April, hitting out at the U.S. violations of the rights of prisoners held by the  U.S. army in  Cuba and  Afghanistan.

It said the  U.S. has "undermined the presumption of innocence through a pattern of public commentary on the presumed guilt" of the detainees and has "raised the prospect of indefinite detention without charge or trial".