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Afghan
war documentary charges US with mass killings of POWs |
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A
documentary film, Massacre in Mazar, by Irish director Jamie Doran, was
shown to selected audiences in Europe last week, provoking demands for
an international inquiry into US war crimes in Afghanistan. The film alleges
that American troops collaborated in the torture of POWs and the killing
of thousands of captured Taliban soldiers near the town of Mazar-i-Sharif.
It documents events following the November 21, 2001 fall of Konduz, the
Taliban's last stronghold in northern Afghanistan. The film was shown
in Berlin by the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) parliamentary
fraction to members of the German parliament on June 12. The following
day it was shown to deputies and members of the press at the European
parliament in Strasbourg. After seeing the
film, French Euro MP Francis Wurtz, a member of the United Left fraction
that organised the showing, said he would call for an urgent debate on
the issues raised in the film at the next session of the European
parliament in July. A number of other deputies in the European
parliament called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to
carry out an independent investigation into the allegations raised in
the film. Leading
international human rights lawyer Andrew McEntee, who was present at the
special screening in Berlin, said it was "clear there is prima
facie evidence of serious war crimes committed not just under
international law, but also under the laws of the United States
itself." McEntee called for
an independent investigation. "No functioning criminal justice
system can choose to ignore this evidence," he said. The Pentagon
issued a statement June 13 denying the allegations of US complicity in
the torture and murder of POWs, and the US State Department followed suit with a
formal denial on June 14. Doran, an award-winning independent filmmaker,
whose documentaries have been seen in over 35 countries, said he decided
to release a rough cut of his account of war crimes because he feared
Afghan forces were about to cover up the evidence of mass killings.
"It's absolutely essential that the site of the mass grave is
protected," Doran told United Press International after the
screening in Strasbourg. "Otherwise the evidence will
disappear." Doran's call for the
preservation of evidence was echoed by the Boston-based Physicians for
Human Rights, which issued a statement June 14 urging that immediate
steps be taken to safeguard the gravesite of the alleged victims near
Mazar-i-Sharif. Late last year Doran
shot footage of the aftermath of the massacre of hundreds of captured
Taliban troops at the Qala-i-Janghi prison fortress outside of Mazar-i-Sharif.
His film clips, showing prisoners who had apparently been shot with
their hands tied, ignited an international outcry over the conduct of
American special operations forces and their Northern Alliance allies. Doran's new film
includes interviews with eyewitnesses to torture and the slaughter of
some 3,000 POWs. It also contains footage of the desert scene where the
alleged massacre took place. Skulls, clothing and limbs still protrude
from the mound of sand, more than six months after the event. The film has
received widespread coverage in the European press, with articles
featured in some of the main French and German newspapers (Le Monde,
Suddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt). Jamie Doran has also given interviews to
two of the main German television companies. While the
documentary has become a major news story in Europe, it has been
virtually blacked out by the American media. The UPI released a dispatch
on the screenings last week, yet the existence of the film has not even
been reported by such leading newspapers as the New York Times, the Los
Angeles Times and the Washington Post. The film and its allegations of
US war crimes have been similarly suppressed by the television networks
and cable news channels. This reporter was
able to view the 20-minute-long documentary in Berlin. In the course of
the film a series of witnesses appear and testify that American military
forces participated in the armed assault and killing of several hundred
Taliban prisoners in the Qala-i-Janghi fortress. Witnesses also allege
that, following the events at Qala-i-Janghi, the American army command
was complicit in the killing and disposal of a further 3,000 prisoners,
out of a total of 8,000 who surrendered after the battle of Konduz. Afghan witnesses who
speak of these atrocities are not identified by name, but, according to
the director, all those testifying in the film are willing to give their
names and appear before an international tribunal to investigate the
events of the end of last November and beginning of December. In Doran's film,
Amir Jahn, an ally of Northern Alliance leader General Rashid Dostum,
states that the Islamic soldiers who surrendered at Konduz did so only
on the condition that their lives would be spared. Some 470 captives
were incarcerated in Qala-i-Janghi. The remaining 7,500 were sent to
another prison at Kala-i-Zein. Following a revolt by a number of the
prisoners in Qala-i-Janghi, the fortress was subjected to a massive
barrage from the air as well as the ground by American troops. The atrocities
inside Qala-i-Janghi are confirmed in the film by the head of the
regional Red Cross, Simon Brookes, who visited the fort shortly after
the massacre. He investigated the area and found bodies, many with their
faces twisted in agony. The American Taliban
supporter John Walker Lindh was one of 86 Taliban fighters who were able
to survive the massacre by hiding in tunnels beneath the fort . In one
chilling scene in the film, we witness actual footage, secretly shot, of
the interrogation of Lindh. We see him kneeling
in the desert, in front of a long row of captive Afghans, being
interrogated by two CIA officers. The officer leading the interrogation
is heard to say: "But the
problem is he needs to decide if he lives or dies. If he does not want
to die here, he is going to die here, because we are going to leave him
here and he's going to stay in prison for the rest of his life." Massacre in Mazar
then goes to describe the treatment meted out to the remaining thousands
of captives who had surrendered to the Northern Alliance and American
troops. A further 3,000 prisoners were separated out from the total of
8,000 who had surrendered, and were transported to a prison compound in
the town of Shibarghan. They were shipped to
Shibarghan in closed containers, lacking any ventilation. Local Afghan
truck drivers were commandeered to transport between 200 and 300
prisoners in each container. One of the drivers participating in the
convoy relates that an average of between 150 and 160 died in each
container in the course of the trip. An Afghan soldier
who accompanied the convoy said he was ordered by an American commander
to fire shots into the containers to provide air, although he knew that
he would certainly hit those inside. An Afghan taxi driver reports
seeing a number of containers with blood streaming from their floors. Another witness
relates that many of the 3,000 prisoners were not combatants, and some
had been arrested by US soldiers and their allies and added to the group
for the mere crime of speaking Pashto, a local dialect. Afghan soldiers
testify that upon arriving at the prison camp at Shibarghan, surviving
POWs were subjected to torture and a number were arbitrarily killed by
American troops. One Afghan, shown in
battle fatigues, says of the treatment of prisoners in the Shibarghan
camp: "I was a witness when an American soldier broke one
prisoner's neck and poured acid on others. The Americans did whatever
they wanted. We had no power to stop them." Another Afghan
soldier states, "They cut off fingers, they cut tongues, they cut
their hair and cut their beards. Sometimes they did it for pleasure;
they took the prisoners outside and beat them up and then returned them
to the prison. But sometimes they were never returned and they
disappeared, the prisoner disappeared. I was there." Another Afghan
witness alleges that, in order to avoid detection by satellite cameras,
American officers demanded the drivers take their containers full of
dead and living victims to a spot in the desert and dump them. Two of
the Afghan civilian truck drivers confirm that they witnessed the
dumping of an estimated 3,000 prisoners in the desert. According to one of
the drivers, while 30 to 40 American soldiers stood by, those prisoners
still living were shot and left in the desert to be eaten by dogs. The
final harrowing scenes of the film feature a panorama of bones, skulls
and pieces of clothing littering the desert. |