Afghan Massacre

by William Penwell 59 Replies latest jw friends

  • William Penwell
    William Penwell

    I watch this show yesterday on CBCnewsworld. This was already broadcast to Europe but not in the US due to the war. It was about a Warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who was responsible for massacring Taliban prisoners of war. I am not saying that the American troops were involved but there is eye witness statements that the troops were present at the time. Is this not a war crime? Should not those that did this be held responsible? Should Bush not be consistent and bring the offending parties to justice? I guess it is OK though because these were only Afghans, not American or Jewish prisoners of war.

    A few quotes from the show;

    "There’s only one war on our television screens now – that other war, the one from just a year ago, has been forgotten – but not by everyone. In Afghanistan, filmmaker Jamie Doran has uncovered evidence of a massacre: Taliban prisoners of war suffocated in containers, shot in the desert under the watch of American troops."

    http://www.cbc.ca/disclosure/archives/030408.html#afghan

    "As I observed while covering the Kunduz front last fall, Northern Alliance commanders promised to quickly release ethnic Afghans among the Taliban once they laid down their arms. Many immediately joined the Northern Alliance. The status of foreign nationals, the so-called Arab Taliban, was somewhat nebulous since they didn't have hometowns in Afghanistan to which they might return after being released. In the end, Dostum guaranteed the lives of all 8,000-plus POWs. "Both British and American military officers were present" at the surrender deal, says Doran."

    "Five thousand of the 8,000 prisoners made the trip to Sheberghan prison in the backs of open-air Soviet-era pick-up trucks. But Dostum's soldiers, furious about the Qala-i-Jhangi uprising and a Taliban ambush during the siege of Kunduz, were out for vengeance. They stopped and commandeered private container trucks to transport the other 3,000 prisoners. "It was awful," Irfan Azgar Ali, a survivor of the trip, told England's Guardian newspaper. "They crammed us into sealed shipping containers. We had no water for 20 hours. We banged on the side of the container. There was no air and it was very hot. There were 300 of us in my container. By the time we arrived in Sheberghan, only ten of us were alive."

    "Everything was under the control of the American commanders," a Northern Alliance soldier tells Doran in the film. American troops searched the bodies for Al Qaeda identification cards. But, says another driver, "Some of [the prisoners] were alive. They were shot" while "maybe 30 or 40" American soldiers watched"

    http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/afghan/2003/0204mass.htm

  • hillary_step
    hillary_step

    Wiliam,

    Yes, I saw this feature. Truly sickening. Especially nauseating was the local leader and his obviously prompted reactions when he admitted that prisoners had indeed been transported in sealed containers but that they had ventilation holes cut in them. The filmed evidence showed him to be a murderous liar. These prisoners were deliberately suffocated to death in their hundreds, those unconscious were shot in the presence of the US Armed services and their remains left in the desert for the vultures to pick clean

    It is true that these prisoners were part of the Taliban Cult and had no reason to expect mercy from their conquerors due to their own vile behavior, but those who cry ‘Geneva Convention’ and show outrage at the treatment of their own prisoners should look to themselves.

    HS

  • gitasatsangha
    gitasatsangha

    Fortunately we've made certain this will never happen again in Afghanistan by setting up a puppet regime under an oligarchy headed by the almost unversally disliked Hamid Karzai. To make things even more stable, we haven't given the a freakin cent in aid to even cover the damage of our own military adventure, there.

    Who will we attack next month?

  • hillary_step
    hillary_step
    Who will we attack next month?

    lol....Nobody seems to have blanket-bombed Wales yet. It could be next on the agenda. Wales is well known for its Terrorist Chapel Singers.

    HS

  • Simon
    Simon

    sickening, truly sickening

  • Trauma_Hound
    Trauma_Hound

    And the bloody american government expects our POW's to be treated fairly. Bloody hell. Grrrr, where are you pro-war people now?

  • William Penwell
    William Penwell
    that prisoners had indeed been transported in sealed containers but that they had ventilation holes cut in them.

    Yes but remember how they cut the holes in the containers? They shot the containers with bullets killing some of them in there. The one eye witness said that he seen blood flowing out of some of the containers. Years ago I worked unloading those same type of metal containers. During the summer with the sun beating down on the roof they could get very hot inside, We had to have fans running inside continually to cool them down. This was where I live, imagine in a place like Afghanistan?? it would have easily got over a 100 degrees in there.

    It is true that these prisoners were part of the Taliban Cult and had no reason to expect mercy from their conquerors due to their own vile behavior, but those who cry ‘Geneva Convention’ and show outrage at the treatment of their own prisoners should look to themselves.

    Maybe there were vile people but they didn't deserve this inhuman treatment. A couple of points here, They surrendered and were promised that they would be treated humanly. That they would give them over to the UN You are correct as far as this is a contravention of the "Geneva Convention", a War crime. The US pentagon has denied the allegations. Even if we give them the benefit of the doubt, that they had nothing to do with it, can you see the Hypocrisy here? When the US is pushing now to indite Saddam Husseim and his followers for "war crimes".

  • outnfree
    outnfree

    Here I am, T_H!

    And I am appalled at this report! Without having viewed the program itself, these would seem to be atrocities committed with the tacit approval of the U.S. military. I am sick at the thought and hope that the soldiers involved will be disciplined. (Puts one in mind of the Jews in the sealed trains, doesn't it? ) This is no way for POWs to be treated; vengeance is a fearful thing.

    I don't expect our POWs in Iraq to be found alive, however. I just hope they didn't have to endure what these prisoners did first.

    Heinous!

    out

  • William Penwell
    William Penwell

    Yes I was going to comment, where is all the Bush appoligists now?? According to when this was aired, they said it would eventually be aired down in the US. I would almost put money on it that it won't be aired by your right wing, media for some time, if ever.

    Will

  • gitasatsangha
    gitasatsangha

    Strangely, they aird a French news broadcast on CSPAN last night for about an hour or so. VERY DIFFERENT from Fox "Die You Commie Bastard Furriner" News Channel.

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