Taliban prisoners head home

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Newly freed from Afghanistan's most notorious prison, gaunt and bewildered Taliban inmates spoke Thursday of being packed 50 to 60 in cells meant for five and starvation rations that sometimes led to death.

Hundreds of inmates -- heads shaved for lice and ratty clothes hanging loosely from wasted bodies -- wrapped themselves in thin shawls against the evening chill as they waited in the Afghan capital of Kabul for buses to take them home.

"There are still small children being held there," said Nazar Mohammed, 22. "They should have been released before us."

The prisoners were all Taliban fighters arrested when the northern alliance swept through northern Afghanistan in November. All said they had been forced to join the Taliban under threats to their families or of losing their land, shops or houses.

The exact number of inmates released Wednesday from northern Shibergan prison was not clear. Caroline Douilliez, spokeswoman for the international Red Cross, said 614 prisoners had been freed. A deputy of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, who controls the prison, put the number at 560.

Despite the releases, the prison remains at three times capacity. Faizullah Zaki, a spokesman for Dostum, said 2,300 prisoners remained in Shibergan, including 800 foreigners, nearly all of them from Pakistan. Among those still held are boys as young as 14 or 15.

The bulk of the released prisoners -- about 400 -- arrived in Kabul in a convoy of buses they paid for with money from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which gave each inmate about $14 as he left the prison.

The convoy was held up for three hours at a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Kabul, the prisoners said, and they were forced to hand over the equivalent of about $1.40 each to guards before being allowed to continue on.

In addition, all of the prisoners interviewed said relatives had to bribe prison officials to win their release, most citing a figure of about $500.