[iwar] [fc:US.Tied.to.Massacre.in.Afghanistan]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-06-15 15:29:59

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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2002 15:29:59 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:US.Tied.to.Massacre.in.Afghanistan]
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Onpassed from JUSTWATCH List, a list of US and European legal and Bosnia experts.  

Commentary from:
Thomas Keenan
Human Rights Project
Bard College

Getting a lot of play in Europe and elsewhere - but no reaction in the US
except for a UPI report carried by the Washington Times, and a pre-emptive
dismissal in the Wall Street Journal, as far as I can tell -- is a
documentary called MASSACRE AT MAZAR, which charges that (as South
Africa's respected _Independent_ puts it): "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."

UPI reporters Gareth Harding and Elizabeth Manning write, on the basis of
what apprently is a 20-minute rough-cut of Doran's film, screened in
Berlin and Strasbourg earlier this week,

        After interrogation in Sheberghan jail, the film charges,
        thousands of Taliban prisoners were driven to the Dasht Leili
        desert in container trucks by their Northern Alliance captors and
        summarily executed. Doran's documentary quotes eyewitnesses as
        saying 30-40 American troops were present at the execution.

        The Afghan driver of one container truck, in which 200-300
        prisoners were crammed, told the film-makers he shot holes in the
        side to provide ventilation. Over half the prisoners died on route
        to the desert, the driver says.

        Another witness, who described smelling rotting flesh from the
        containers when filling his car with petrol, told the filmmaker:
        "Blood was leaking from the vehicles. It was horrible."

        Doran has exclusive footage of the desert scene where the alleged
        massacre took place. Skulls, clothing and limbs still protrude
        from the mounds of sand, more than six months after the alleged
        massacre.

        The documentary has not yet been broadcast, but Doran's earlier
        footage of the aftermath of the Qala-i-Changi uprising --
        including prisoners who had apparently been shot with their hands
        tied -- ignited controversy about the conduct of American special
        operations troops and their Northern Alliance allies during the
        dying days of the Taliban regime.

It bears noting that the desert at Dasht Leili was apparently the scene of
a major corpse-disposal operation by the Taliban in 1998, acording to
Human Rights Watch ("THE MASSACRE IN MAZAR-I SHARIF"):

        http://www.hrw.org/reports98/afghan/Afrepor0-02.htm

Links below, see also

        http://www.sueddeutsche.de/aktuell/sz/artikel3366.php

        http://www.dagsavisen.no/utenriks/2002/06/661322.shtml

Thomas Keenan
Human Rights Project
Bard College
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