Special forces including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, Germany and Britain, were involved in what were called "snatch-grabs" - missions to round up terrorist suspects to hand over to the United States for detention and interrogation. Instead of being identified, photographed and fingerprinted and having their weapons properly registered, these prisoners had their heads shaved, no photos or ID taken and their belongings thrown into a single pile. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Phil Goff said the New Zealand SAS had been involved in the detention of prisoners on two occasions but had held them for no more than five hours before handing them over to the United States and Canada. He said New Zealand had been involved in the capture of between 50 and 70 prisoners. "We followed up to see what had happened to those people and to the best of our knowledge, none of those people are still in custody in the hands of US authorities." The US military is not in the habit of answering any questions about any of the people captured in Afghanistan even from its 'friends' or 'allies'.
The US government declared detainees to be 'enemy combatants', not prisoners of war, and therefore not subject to all the protections of the Geneva Convention. This legal interpretation has been challenged by lawyers around the world, but not by New Zealand. The rules of engagement for New Zealand forces in Afghanistan said that it was "extremely unlikely that anyone detained by NZ SAS forces in Afghanistan (or during other Operation Enduring Freedom deployments) would qualify for Prisoner of War (POW) status." In other words, the people rounded up by the NZSAS may very well still be in detention, either at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan or at Guantanamo Bay subject to routine torture by the US.
Torture and abuse of detainees in Afghanistan is well-documented and equals that which is happening in Iraq. US forces in Afghanistan have engaged in widespread Abu Ghraib-style abuse, taking 'trophy photographs' of detainees and carrying out rape and sexual humiliation. Much of this abuse has occurred at Bagram Air Force Base where at least two New Zealand officers are currently based.
Links:
Audrey Young. 2007. SAS complained at US treatment of prisoners. New Zealand Herald.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/story.cfm?a_id=164&objectid=10426149
Keith Locke. 2005. Have POWs captured by NZers been mistreated by the US? The Press.
http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/other8784.html
Suzanne Goldenberg and James Meek. 2005. Papers reveal Bagram abuse. The Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1417396,00.html