Hundreds of prisoners set to be freed

(22 Mar 2002)

1. Wide of Sheberghan prison
2. Zoom in on prisoners looking through bars and barbed wire
3. Wide of prisoners looking through bars
4. Close up of prisoner behind bars, tilts down to his feet
5. Wide of group of men with bread rations
6. Man holding bread
7. Wide of men crowded together inside prison
8. Various of man locking door
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Hamzi, Prisoner (only first name given)
"I'm, insha'allah (God willing), going in Pakistan and not coming (back) here."
10. Various of prisoners in courtyard sheltering from heavy rain under blankets, waiting to be released
11. Man being helped to walk, tilts to bandaged feet in mud
12. Red Cross worker talking with prisoners
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Emomet, International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) Protection delegate
"These people are released, ok? I think everybody will be happy to be released and I don't want to comment any further on this. It is clearly a good point that these people can go home."
14. Various of prisoners with Red Cross workers receiving money to help them get home
15. Rear view of prisoners walking to prison gates

STORYLINE:

Several hundred Taliban prisoners are being allowed to return home after spending nearly five months in the Sheberghan prison in northern Afghanistan.

These 300 prisoners are mostly 16 to 18-year-old men from southern Afghanistan who were recruited by the al-Qaida terrorist network, but didn't take part in any fighting.

Their release was timed to coincide with the Afghan new year which began on Thursday, the first day of spring.

The prison, which is run by General Dostum's forces, has around 3-thousand-330 Taliban inmates, making it the biggest in Afghanistan.

Conditions are poor and illnesses including dysentery, skin diseases and respiratory diseases are common, while medical care is inadequate or non-existent.

Of the Afghan prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, 180 were transferred from Sheberghan in December and January.

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