re: towie - pow's slaughtered b
Towie, here's some info to look over. I could dig deeper, but I think you should get the idea of how things really are...
Dozens of Taliban prisoners, and possibly as many as 43, were crammed into shipping containers where they were allowed to suffocate to death. The International Red Cross attempted for ten days to investigate the incident before being allowed to enter the prison where the containers were en route to. That's 43 human beings who were murdered, in violation of every treaty concerning the treatment of prisoners during wartime. The information about this atrocity was in a sidebar on page A24 of the 12/12/01 LA Times.
TALIBAN POWS FACE CATTLE CARS AND DESERT CAMPS At least 43 Taliban prisoners died after surrendering to the Northern Alliance, asphyxiated in shipping containers used to transport them to fortress prisons in northern Afghanistan (New York Times, Dec. 11). US Marines are now building detainment camps for Taliban and al-Qaeda POWs in the desert of southern Afghanistan (New York Times, Dec. 15). Amnesty International continues to call for adherence to international norms in the treatment of Taliban/al-Qaeda POWs, as well as to demand an investigation into the death of 500 detainees at Kala-i-Janghi fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif
11 December 2001 AI Index ASA 11/003/2001 - News Service Nr. 219
News Flash Afghanistan: Clean surrender needed
Following reports that significant numbers of Al-Qaeda fighters are surrendering in the Tora Bora region of southern Afghanistan, Amnesty International called for appropriate arrangements to be made for the processing and protection of prisoners, many of whom are likely to be non-Afghan nationals.
"The recent events at the Qala-i-Jhangi fort near Mazar-i-Sharif, where several hundred captured Taleban fighters and others were killed in disputed circumstances, and news reports today that dozens of others apparently suffocated in sealed shipping containers, while being transported to a prison in Shibarghan, heighten concerns for the treatment of any other surrendering combatants."
"The key role of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in overseeing the processing and treatment of prisoners must be facilitated to ensure that people are properly protected."
August 19, 2002 AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020819-59933416.htm
As many as 1,000 prisoners in Afghanistan may have died of asphyxiation in container trucks while being transferred by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance, according to U.N. and Afghan officials.
Those who died were among thousands of Taliban and al-Qaeda forces who had surrendered in Kunduz and were taken to prisons in overcrowded container trucks, witnesses told Newsweek magazine.
U.S. troops were aware of reports of container deaths, the magazine said. But the magazine found no evidence U.S. soldiers were involved or witnessed the deaths.
"I have read in news media about suspected mass graves, but I don't know anything about asphyxiation containers, or validated mass graves. I don't know if its true," U.S. Central Command spokesman Maj. John Robinson told AFP.
Dan Bartlett, White House communications director, emphasized that humanitarian relief is President Bush's first concern in Afghanistan.
"In our own treatment of detainees that have been detained during this war, have been treated humanely and with respect and with decency, all in accordance with and consistent with our international guidelines," Mr. Bartlett told ABC News. "It's important that we not rush to judgment, that we look at the facts."
The Red Cross and the United Nations both looked into reports of hundreds of dead Taliban prisoners buried in mass graves outside of Sheberghan prison in December, Newsweek said.
A U.N. report given to Newsweek said it found a site that "contains bodies of Taliban POW's who died of suffocation during transfer from Kunduz to Sheberghan."
"I can say with confidence that more than 1,000 people died in the containers," said Aziz ur Rahman Razekh, director of the Afghan Organization of Human Rights.
Article 19 of the Geneva Convention calls for safe evacuation of prisoners "as soon as possible to camps situated in an area far enough from the combat zone for them to be out of danger", while Article 20 requires that such "evacuation shall be effected humanely and in conditions similar to those for the forces of the detaining power in their changes of stations". Article 38 says: "prisoners shall have opportunities for taking physical exercise, including sports and games, and for being out of doors. Sufficient open spaces shall be provided for this purpose in all camps". Article 71 permits the prisoners to send and receive not less than two letters and four cards every month.
The cold-blooded massacre of 160 Taliban fighters by their captors in the presence of seven or eight American military personnel at Takht Pol and the mass slaughter of POWs at Qila-i-Jangi in November, and the transportation of 43 prisoners in sealed shipping containers in a three-day journey from Kunduz to Shibarghan and their death by suffocation and the mass grave of 112 Taliban prisoners in Parwan with their hands tied behind their backs constitute war crimes and crime against humanity perpetrated by Northern Alliance and the US invading forces. These horrendous acts have prompted an outcry for legal answer ability of the perpetrators.
Documentary of US 'war crimes' in Afghanistan shocks Europe http://www.transnationale.org/anglais/forums/suprematie__suprematie/showmessage.\ asp?messageID=388
American soldiers have been involved in the torture and murder of captured Taliban prisoners, and may have aided in the "disappearance" of up to 3 000 men in the region of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to Jamie Doran, an Irish documentary film-maker.
Doran's latest film, Massacre At Mazar, was shown on Wednesday in in the Reichstag, the German parliament building in Berlin, and there were immediate calls for an international commission to be set up to investigate charges made in the documentary.
Andrew McEntee, a leading international human rights lawyer, who has viewed the film footage and read full transcripts, believes there is prima facie evidence of serious war crimes having been committed by American soldiers in Afghanistan.
'The Americans did whatever they wanted' McEntee, who was in Berlin for Wednesday's special screening, said war crimes had been committed not just under international law but, also, "under the laws of the United States itself".
Much of the footage shown in Doran's 20-minute documentary was taken secretly, and although witnesses were said to be living in fear of reprisal from within Afghanistan itself they had all agreed to appear at any future international war crimes tribunal to give evidence, it was claimed.
One witness in the film claimed he had seen an American soldier break an Afghan prisoner's neck and pour acid on others. "The Americans did whatever they wanted. We had no power to stop them," he alleged.
Sometimes prisoners who were beaten up and taken outside had "disappeared", he said.
In other sequences witnesses, among them two men, claimed they had been forced to drive into the desert with hundreds of Taliban prisoners.
The living were then summarily shot while 30 to 40 American soldiers purportedly stood by, it was alleged. The prisoners had been taken there on the orders of the local American commander, according to the documentary.
In the film, an Afghan witness admitted to killing prisoners himself, and another officer, allegedly a senior officer in the army of deputy defence minister Dostum's forces, was said to have gone into hiding following threats to his life.
The far-left Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) arranged for the special showing of Massacre At Mazar in the Reichstag. Party chairman Roland Claus was cautious regarding its content but did spoke of its attempt at "authenticity."
Andre Brie, a PDS member of the European Parliament, concerned by reports of ill treatment of Taliban prisoners, said he would be in favour of an international commission looking into "disturbing" questions raised by the film.
At a press conference Brie said he had known of Doran's dangerous film activity in Afghanistan, and had helped to support him financially.
The PDS party faction had wanted to obtain authentic footage of the war in Afghanistan, he said.
The film was due to be screened at the European Parliament in Strasbourg later on Wednesday evening.
-or- Afghan war documentary charges US with mass killings of POWs Showings in Europe spark demands for war crimes probe WSWS http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/afgh-j17.shtml
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....
(also on this web page is a fairly comprehensive list of articles detailing war crimes allegations)
--or--
Interview with Jamie Doran, director of Massacre at Mazar WSWS http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/dora-j17.shtml
Jamie Doran is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who has been producing films for the past 22 years. He spent seven years working for the BBC before establishing his own independent television company. He has spent much of the last eight months working in Afghanistan on film projects. The WSWS conducted this interview with Doran on June 14.
WSWS: You deal briefly with the events in the fort of Qala-i-Janghi, but the main part of your film concentrates on the fate of all 8,000 fighters who surrendered to American forces in Konduz.
JD: That’s right. 8,000 surrendered to Amir Jahn, who negotiated the surrender deal. In the film he says he counted the prisoners one by one, and there were 8,000 of them. 470 went to Qala-i-Janghi. The assumption is that seven-and-a-half-thousand went from Qala-i-Janghi to Sheberghan, and the result of that transport was that, according to his words, “Just 3,015 are left. Where are the rest?”
WSWS: What happened to the surviving 3,015? Have they been set free?
JD: No, most of them are still there in prison. They are letting some of them go, but the majority are still in detention.
WSWS: Regarding the US involvement in what took place, could I ask about the witnesses who appear in the film?
JD: Three members of the Afghan military appear in the film, two ordinary soldiers and one general. Then there is one taxi diver who witnessed three containers with blood pouring from them. He said his hair stood on end and that it was horrific. Then two of the truck drivers testify who were forced to take the containers into the desert. Based on the statements of the witnesses, the total number of those transported was at the very least 1,500, but more likely the total is up to 3,000.
WSWS: Is there any other evidence, apart from the testimony of these witnesses, on the involvement of the American military in the deaths of these 3,000 prisoners?
JD: Absolutely not. The reason the story has been released early is that I received a warning from Mazar-i-Sharif that the graves in the desert were being tampered with. All the evidence is in the graves, and it is essential that those graves are not touched!
WSWS: Do you know who was tampering with them?
JD: Yes I do, but I am not saying. What I am saying is that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and the genuinely innocent have nothing to fear from an independent inquiry. So the Afghans and Americans involved in this have nothing to fear from an independent inquiry, if they are innocent. I am sure they can have no objections to such an inquiry.
WSWS: In your opinion, in such an operation involving the transportation and elimination of up to 3,000 people, is it possible that the American troops did not have knowledge or give their consent?
JD: You want my opinion? My answer is no. One hundred and fifty Americans soldiers were present at Sheberghan prison. That does not include CIA personnel. In my opinion, it would be highly unlikely that they could remain unaware of something taking place of such magnitude.
WSWS: In your opinion, how high up in the US army chain of command does complicity in these events extend?
JD: I repeat. When you have 150 American soldiers and a number of CIA personnel in the vicinity of Sheberghan prison, it would be extremely strange if they did not have knowledge of these atrocities taking place.
WSWS: In the film, witnesses say that American military personnel were involved in the torture and shooting of Afghan prisoners.
JD: In the film, accusations are made that torture was carried out by American soldiers, but the major accusation in terms of the numbers involved is that an American officer told one of the witnesses to get the containers out of the town of Sheberghan before satellite pictures could be taken. Also, one of the drivers talked of 30 to 40 American soldiers being present at the location of the murder and burial of survivors in the desert.
WSWS: Is there any evidence to point to the participation of American soldiers in shooting victims in the desert?
JD: I have absolutely no evidence that American troops were involved in the shooting that took place in the desert. At the same time, there are other witnesses to the mass grave in the desert. There are human rights activists who found the mass grave in the desert even before me, and they now describe my film as “the missing link.” They found the grave and, under the auspices of the UN, dug up a small section of earth containing 15 bodies. They estimate that in that one section of the desert there were about a thousand bodies. They too are calling for the grave to be protected, because at the moment it is being protected by no one. So the evidence can be easily tampered with.
WSWS: Based on the evidence of your film, what are you calling for?
JD: I am a journalist. I do not make calls. What I am saying is that evidence must be protected. It is essential that the grave is protected until an international inquiry can be carried out.
WSWS: What has been the reaction to your film?
JD: It has been incredible. I have had worldwide inquiries. There has even been interest in America. It has been astonishing. I have had inquires from South Africa, Australia, as well as every country in Europe.
WSWS: What are your plans for showing the film to a wider audience?
JD: As you know, this is a short film that I have released in order to prevent the graves being damaged. The main film will be finished in about five to six weeks, and will carry greater implications against the people involved.
WSWS: Could you say something about the risks involved in shooting your film?
JD: I was working as an independent journalist in Afghanistan—that says everything. I do not give a damn about my own position, but I am concerned about my journalists there and, in particular, I am concerned about the witnesses who risked everything to appear in the film. They had no reason to give these interviews. It has put them in great danger. None of them received a single cent for their contributions. I repeat that they received absolutely no payment for their appearance in the film and have only, in fact, put themselves in extreme danger. It is urgent that immediate action is taken to protect the graves, protect the evidence. The innocent have nothing to fear.
