Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General to Afghanistan Jean Arnault has slammed the reported abuse of detainees at US holding facilities in Afghanistan.

"The circumstances involving the abuse and inhuman treatment leading to the death of two Afghan prisoners in Bagram in 2002 reported in the New York Times were unacceptable," Arnault said in a statement read out by Richard Provencher, the spokesman of UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in Kabul Sunday.

Citing military investigations, the New York Times in its report published Friday disclosed that two Afghans namely Dilawar and Habibullah were subjected to torture and later on died at the US military detention center in Bagram 50km north of the Afghan capital Kabul in December 2002.

"Such abuses are utterly unacceptable and are an affront to everything the international community stands for in Afghanistan," added the UN diplomat.

Over 500 Afghans, according to Afghan sources, have been held in the prison of Guantanamo Bay and 22 holding facilities at home on charge of having links with Taliban and al-Qaida over the past three and half years.

The special envoy of UN secretary general in the statement also called for the access of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) to the US prisons in Afghanistan.

"Afghan judiciary should have a primary role in ensuring that detainees can enjoy the protection of the law and every efforts should be made towards achieving this goal. But special measures are also required and one such measure is the provision of access to prisons including coalition facilities by AIHRC," he emphasized in the statement.

However the US military time and again ruled out the permission of access to its detention centers by AIHRC, saying that International Society of Red Cross is the only recognized body entitled to have access to its holding facilities.

President Hamid Karzai on Saturday condemned the reported abuse of detainees and the death of two inmates in Bagram and urged the US government to investigate and punish those responsible for the crime.

(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2005)