KABUL, 15 January 2008 (IRIN) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the US government have jointly set up a video-telecommunications system in Kabul which allows over 600 prisoners currently held by US forces to make a 20-minute live video-call to their relatives, the ICRC said in a press release.

The new programme has been installed in response to the ICRC's constant demand that the US military facilitate regular contacts between internees - held at detention centres in Afghanistan and Guantanamo – and their families.

"The first families came [to the telecoms facility] on Sunday 6 January and talked to their loved ones between Monday and Wednesday," said the press release.

The video-call technology has been supplied by the US military which will be monitoring the calls for security and intelligence purposes.

According to the ICRC, the video-calls are made via a "dedicated wireless-link setup" between the ICRC office in Kabul and a US military facility in Bagram, north of Kabul.

"The ICRC has set up three family booths with a capacity of five adults per booth, and calls last 20 minutes each," the organisation said.

Families who come from different parts of Afghanistan to Kabul to do live visual chats with their detained relatives will also receive a lump-sum from the ICRC for their travel costs and other expenses.

Graziella Leite Piccolo, a spokeswoman of the ICRC in Kabul, told IRIN that this was the first time ICRC had used video-call technology to facilitate contacts between prisoners and their relatives.

"At least every two months there will be a possibility for them to repeat the video-call," she said.

It is still unclear whether a similar programme will be introduced for prisoners held at Guantanamo.

ad/cb

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org

IRIN news