KABUL, May 28: Many complaints against US soldiers in Afghanistan remain unspoken, with illiterate and isolated citizens unwilling or unable to lodge their protests, according to the country's main rights organisation.

As the furore rages over the alleged abuse of Afghan and Iraqi prisoners in US custody, some 40 other criticisms against the American military and the way they conduct their fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda men have been lodged with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.

Families have complained of members being arrested and never heard from again, others complain of civilian deaths and injuries in American bombings, and some at the midnight intrusion of soldiers into their homes.

Three deaths in US custody in Afghanistan are being investigated by the US, two of which date back as far as December 2002. Two more deaths were revealed by Pentagon officials in Washington last week, but little other information has been given out.

Of 44 complaints against the US-led coalition reported to the commission, three concern prisoner abuse. Commissioner Ahmad Nader Nadery believes these are the tip of the iceberg.

"For sure there are more complaints," Nadery said in an interview this week. "In some cases maybe people are afraid. Some of the people don't know if they can go and complain, and maybe there is a perception that the government is supported by the US so maybe they (the government) don't listen.

Which is not the case." Some Afghans might not be able to travel to one of the commission's provincial offices to lodge a complaint. Other people simply see military searches and aggression as a part of life after more than two decades of war, he said.

Commission member Ahmad Zia Langari said that many cases may never emerge. "There might be more cases but people, considering the Afghan traditions and culture, have not told us," he said.

The US-led coalition now numbers some 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, the vast majority being US troops. Many complaints of general aggression by US troops have been received, primarily in the south eastern city of Gardez which covers the Pakistan border provinces of Khost and Paktika where the US-led force is deployed in strength.

The complaints "deal with the way they have been treated while in custody, families who have not heard from their captured relatives, coalition forces entering by force into homes," commission member Farid Hamidi said.

"Afghans have their own culture and they don't allow men to search females but during the searches this happens, in some cases... and that is something against Afghan culture."

The commission will not reveal details about the prisoner abuse cases. However one of the complainants, a former police colonel, said he was stoned, beaten, deprived of sleep and asked which animal he would like to have sex with by his American guards.

The commission has been denied access to US detention centres in Afghanistan. It has already raised concerns over two US bombing raids in December in which 15 children plus two other civilians died in the south eastern areas of Ghazni and Paktia.

Coalition spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Tucker Mansager says procedures are constantly under review and methods have been improved since 2001, but says troops must perform a "balancing act" in Afghanistan.

"Every soldier knows that our centre of gravity here is the Afghan people and we must treat them with dignity respect," Mansager says. The US has introduced females to its marine units to carry out searches of women, strengthened its rules of engagement to minimise the impact on civilians and modified detention practices since the December 2002 deaths in custody. -AFP