Lulua
10-09-2002, 14:38
Mass graves found in Afghanistan, U.S. group says
By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Hundreds of men - likely Taliban prisoners killed by their northern alliance captors - are buried in a mass grave in a stark desert in northern Afghanistan, says the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights.
Interviews and investigations by the group in January near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif indicate the men in the mass grave - one of the largest in Afghanistan - may have died after they surrendered to northern alliance soldiers who were U.S. allies in the war that defeated the Taliban religious militia. Many in the alliance now make up the interim Afghan regime.
Dr. Jenny Leaning, a board member of the Boston-based rights organization, said Wednesday that they are trying to get protection for the grave site, threatened by dogs and men scavenging earth filled with bones, prayer caps, beads, trousers and more.
Leaning, who discovered the site, asked that a small group of international soldiers cordon off the area until it can be investigated, the numbers of bodies determined and their identities uncovered.
The task would then begin of finding out how they died, Leaning said in a telephone interview.
"It isn't at all clear who was responsible," she said.
Afghan commanders loyal to a variety of groups were operating in the area, as were U.S. troops, further complicating the issue, she said.
"At the time the U.S. was very active in the air and on the ground. What did the U.S. know and when and where and what did they do about it?" she asked.
At Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., spokesman Col. Rick Thomas said he was not aware of the assertions by Physicians for Human Rights. He said others in recent days had asked about allegations that Taliban prisoners had been executed while U.S. special forces soldiers stood by and watched. "We checked and didn't have anything" to substantiate those allegations, Thomas said.
The Physician for Human Rights said its report was made public this week after a letter sent March 1 to Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai went unanswered.
"There is a deep reluctance to look into something that could be politically explosive," Leaning said.
There is no doubt that it is a mass grave, Leaning said. It has already been examined by forensic experts with the group.
"We saw the two sites ... with clear marks of trucks, mounds of disturbed earth and as you walked across it there were bones scattered on the surface, prayer caps, beads, men's shoes, trousers and as you moved the bones around some had flesh on them, some were clean and there were skulls as well," she said.
While it's not certain who is buried in the mass grave, Leaning said there is evidence to indicate it could well be Taliban soldiers. When northern Kunduz and Taloqan collapsed, as many as 5,000 Taliban fighting there later surrendered. But only 3,000 have been accounted for, she said.
Witnesses said they saw northern alliance soldiers, their noses and mouths covered against the stench, dumping entire railway containers into the area in late December and early January. Leaning said the stench was still noticeable when she was there in January.
Such containers have been used as makeshift prisons throughout the country, including for prisoners moved to Shibergan prison west of Mazar-e-Sharif. The grave site is in the Dasht-e-Laili desert a half-hour outside of Shibergan. From the size of the site - a 125-by-125-yard plot and a nearby smaller site - Leaning estimated that it could hold up to 1,000 bodies.
Northern Afghanistan has one of the worst histories of mass killings in 23 years of invasion and civil war. The United Nations investigated a report of as many as 2,000 Taliban massacred in 1997, finding evidence of mass graves. A year later, the Taliban were accused of massacring minority Shiite Muslims when the religious militia retook the city.
Most of Afghanistan's northern alliance warriors belonged to Afghanistan's minority ethnic groups, while the Taliban hardline rulers were mostly Pashtuns. Since the collapse of the Taliban, the Pashtun majority in Afghanistan has been looked upon with suspicion and seen as sympathetic toward the Taliban.
There have been complaints by human rights groups that the interim regime is ignoring abuses against majority Pashtuns and Leaning worries that the grave site may be suffering a similar fate.
Mass graves have been found in several places of Afghanistan. The victims belong to every ethnic group. There are at least 13 mass graves in northern Afghanistan and there have been tips of many more, said Leaning, whose group, founded in 1986 and funded largely by grants and donations, has investigated mass graves in the Balkans.
The Taliban were accused of slaughtering ethnic Hazaras, who are minority Shiite Muslims identified by the Hazarajat region in which they live. Karzai last month visited Bamiyan, a Hazara stronghold, to see mass graves discovered there.
"I think this is the time to make the case that this is a country that is going to have to come to terms with the diversity of ethnic tragedies and ugly history," Leasing said.
"There are no clean hands in Afghanistan, certainly at the leadership level," she said. "That also means there is an opportunity for everyone to come forward and say 'we were harmed and we did harm and we need to acknowledge that in order to move on.'"
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/news/breaking_news/3176566.htm
By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Hundreds of men - likely Taliban prisoners killed by their northern alliance captors - are buried in a mass grave in a stark desert in northern Afghanistan, says the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights.
Interviews and investigations by the group in January near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif indicate the men in the mass grave - one of the largest in Afghanistan - may have died after they surrendered to northern alliance soldiers who were U.S. allies in the war that defeated the Taliban religious militia. Many in the alliance now make up the interim Afghan regime.
Dr. Jenny Leaning, a board member of the Boston-based rights organization, said Wednesday that they are trying to get protection for the grave site, threatened by dogs and men scavenging earth filled with bones, prayer caps, beads, trousers and more.
Leaning, who discovered the site, asked that a small group of international soldiers cordon off the area until it can be investigated, the numbers of bodies determined and their identities uncovered.
The task would then begin of finding out how they died, Leaning said in a telephone interview.
"It isn't at all clear who was responsible," she said.
Afghan commanders loyal to a variety of groups were operating in the area, as were U.S. troops, further complicating the issue, she said.
"At the time the U.S. was very active in the air and on the ground. What did the U.S. know and when and where and what did they do about it?" she asked.
At Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., spokesman Col. Rick Thomas said he was not aware of the assertions by Physicians for Human Rights. He said others in recent days had asked about allegations that Taliban prisoners had been executed while U.S. special forces soldiers stood by and watched. "We checked and didn't have anything" to substantiate those allegations, Thomas said.
The Physician for Human Rights said its report was made public this week after a letter sent March 1 to Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai went unanswered.
"There is a deep reluctance to look into something that could be politically explosive," Leaning said.
There is no doubt that it is a mass grave, Leaning said. It has already been examined by forensic experts with the group.
"We saw the two sites ... with clear marks of trucks, mounds of disturbed earth and as you walked across it there were bones scattered on the surface, prayer caps, beads, men's shoes, trousers and as you moved the bones around some had flesh on them, some were clean and there were skulls as well," she said.
While it's not certain who is buried in the mass grave, Leaning said there is evidence to indicate it could well be Taliban soldiers. When northern Kunduz and Taloqan collapsed, as many as 5,000 Taliban fighting there later surrendered. But only 3,000 have been accounted for, she said.
Witnesses said they saw northern alliance soldiers, their noses and mouths covered against the stench, dumping entire railway containers into the area in late December and early January. Leaning said the stench was still noticeable when she was there in January.
Such containers have been used as makeshift prisons throughout the country, including for prisoners moved to Shibergan prison west of Mazar-e-Sharif. The grave site is in the Dasht-e-Laili desert a half-hour outside of Shibergan. From the size of the site - a 125-by-125-yard plot and a nearby smaller site - Leaning estimated that it could hold up to 1,000 bodies.
Northern Afghanistan has one of the worst histories of mass killings in 23 years of invasion and civil war. The United Nations investigated a report of as many as 2,000 Taliban massacred in 1997, finding evidence of mass graves. A year later, the Taliban were accused of massacring minority Shiite Muslims when the religious militia retook the city.
Most of Afghanistan's northern alliance warriors belonged to Afghanistan's minority ethnic groups, while the Taliban hardline rulers were mostly Pashtuns. Since the collapse of the Taliban, the Pashtun majority in Afghanistan has been looked upon with suspicion and seen as sympathetic toward the Taliban.
There have been complaints by human rights groups that the interim regime is ignoring abuses against majority Pashtuns and Leaning worries that the grave site may be suffering a similar fate.
Mass graves have been found in several places of Afghanistan. The victims belong to every ethnic group. There are at least 13 mass graves in northern Afghanistan and there have been tips of many more, said Leaning, whose group, founded in 1986 and funded largely by grants and donations, has investigated mass graves in the Balkans.
The Taliban were accused of slaughtering ethnic Hazaras, who are minority Shiite Muslims identified by the Hazarajat region in which they live. Karzai last month visited Bamiyan, a Hazara stronghold, to see mass graves discovered there.
"I think this is the time to make the case that this is a country that is going to have to come to terms with the diversity of ethnic tragedies and ugly history," Leasing said.
"There are no clean hands in Afghanistan, certainly at the leadership level," she said. "That also means there is an opportunity for everyone to come forward and say 'we were harmed and we did harm and we need to acknowledge that in order to move on.'"
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/news/breaking_news/3176566.htm