U.S. War Crimes in Afghanistan

Excerpted from article By Clive Freeman, 6/12/02.

Berlin-American soldiers have been involved in the torture and murder of captured Taliban prisoners, and may have aided in the "disappearance" of up to 3000 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 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.

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.

Two other witnesses claim they were forced to drive into the desert with hundreds of Taliban prisoners who were in containers. The orders came from the local U.S. commander, they alleged. Prisoners who had not suffocated to death were then shot dead while 30 to 40 U.S. soldiers stood by watching.

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... - Sapa-DPA

Mr. Doran said his documentary followed closely the findings of a new report by the Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which had concluded that there was evidence of the disposal of human remains at two mass grave sites near Mazar-i-Sharif.

"Physicians for Human Rights tell me that the interviews we conducted for the documentary were the missing link they needed," Mr. Doran said. In the documentary, the witnesses says they believe the bodies at the site found near the village of Shebarghan included the Taliban prisoners who were transported to the site in the truck containers.

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