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"Massacre in Mazar" Movie of US War Crimes
A 20-minute movie on US War Crimes in Afghanistan by Irish filmmaker, Jamie Doran, "Massacre in Mazar," shown recently in Europe, demonstrates that the US is no different from Nazi Germany and its military is just as genocidal as it was in Vietnam and Korea, and has been against the Native Americans and many other people.
A 20-minute movie on US War Crimes in Afghanistan by Irish filmmaker, Jamie Doran, "Massacre in Mazar," shown recently in Europe, demonstrates that the US is no different from Nazi Germany and its military is just as genocidal as it was in Vietnam and Korea, and has been against the Native Americans and many other people.
For the full story, see the World Socialist Website, 6/17/02, "Afghan war documentary charges US with mass killings of POWs" by Stefan Steinberg at:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/afgh-j17.shtml
The horrors perpetrated by US soldiers demonstrate that we live in a society that is so rotten, so uncultured, so depraved and degenerate, that it is long overdue that there be change. Again, the US military did the same in Vietnam, Korea, the Philippines, Panama, Iraq, and right here in the USA against Native Americans, to name a few places.
To put an end to the hatred the world has for us because of these actions, we must make peace and share the wealth which we, the workers of the world, create, as equitably as possible with everyone.
Pertinent paragraphs:
"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.'"
For the full story, see the World Socialist Website, 6/17/02, "Afghan war documentary charges US with mass killings of POWs" by Stefan Steinberg at:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/afgh-j17.shtml
The horrors perpetrated by US soldiers demonstrate that we live in a society that is so rotten, so uncultured, so depraved and degenerate, that it is long overdue that there be change. Again, the US military did the same in Vietnam, Korea, the Philippines, Panama, Iraq, and right here in the USA against Native Americans, to name a few places.
To put an end to the hatred the world has for us because of these actions, we must make peace and share the wealth which we, the workers of the world, create, as equitably as possible with everyone.
Pertinent paragraphs:
"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.'"
For more information:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/...
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AFGHANISTAN:
THE MASSACRE IN MAZAR-I SHARIF
Summary
On August 8, 1998, Taliban militia forces captured the city of Mazar-i Sharif in northwest Afghanistan, the only major city controlled by the United Front, the coalition of forces opposed to the Taliban. The fall of Mazar was part of a successful offensive that gave the Taliban control of almost every major city and important significant territory in northern and central Afghanistan. Within the first few hours of seizing control of the city, Taliban troops killed scores of civilians in indiscriminate attacks, shooting noncombatants and suspected combatants alike in residential areas, city street sand markets. Witnesses described it as a "killing frenzy" as the advancing forces shot at "anything that moved." Retreating opposition forces may also have engaged in indiscriminate shooting as they fled the city. Human Rights Watch believes that at least hundreds of civilians were among those killed as the panicked population of Mazar-i Sharif tried to evade the gunfire or escape the city.
In the days that followed, Taliban forces carried out a systematic search for male members of the ethnic Hazara, Tajik, and Uzbek communities in the city. The Hazaras, a Persian-speaking Shi’a ethnic group, were particularly targeted, in part because of their religious identity. During the house-to-house searches, scores and perhaps hundreds of Hazara men and boys were summarily executed, apparently to ensure that they would be unable to mount any resistance to the Taliban. Also killed were eight Iranian officials at the Iranian consulate in the city and an Iranian journalist. Thousands of men from various ethnic communities were detained first in the overcrowded city jail and then transported to other cities, including Shiberghan, Herat and Qandahar. Most of the prisoners were transported in large container trucks capable of holding one hundred to 150 people. In two known instances, when the trucks reached Shiberghan, some 130 kilometers west of Mazar, nearly all of the men inside had asphyxiated or died of heat stroke inside the closed metal containers. Some prisoners were also transported in smaller trucks. As of late October, some 4,500 men from Mazar remained in detention. . . .
News Service 171/98
AI INDEX: ASA 11/07/98
3 SEPTEMBER 1998
Afghanistan
Thousands of civilians killed
following Taleban takeover of Mazar-e Sharif
Taleban guards deliberately and systematically killed thousands of ethnic Hazara civilians during the first three days following their military takeover of Mazar-e Sharif on 8 August 1998, according to new information received by Amnesty International.
Since their arrival in Mazar-e Sharif, the Taleban have sealed the area to foreign media and independent observers. Amnesty International's information is based on testimonies from eyewitnesses and surviving members of the victims' families.
The vast majority of those killed were from the Hazara ethnic group living in Zara'at, Saidabad, and Elm Arab areas of the city. The victims were killed deliberately and arbitrarily in their homes, in the streets where their bodies were left for several days, or in locations between Mazar-e Sharif and Hairatan. Many of those killed were civilians including women, children and the elderly who were shot trying to flee the city.
"This latest information shows yet again how the Taleban disregard internationally recognized humanitarian laws on the treatment of civilians in armed conflict," Amnesty International said. "The Taleban leadership must give clear and direct orders to their troops to uphold international safeguards."
"Foreign governments bankrolling or giving military support to the Taleban bear some responsibility for failing to rein in the Taleban's worst excesses. They must publicly condemn these latest atrocities and pressure the Taleban to immediately release all prisoners held simply because of their ethnic identity and allow independent investigators into the area."
"Amnesty International repeats its call to all governments to ensure that all the warring factions in Afghanistan do not receive any military equipment or training which could be used to commit human rights abuses," the organization added.
In at least one instance, a group of prisoners were reportedly executed in front of villagers near the city of Hairatan. Some 70 men were reportedly executed in a Halal [Islamic slaughter of animals] killing ritual at the tomb of Abdul Ali Mazari.
Eleven Iranian nationals (ten diplomats and one journalist) are said to have been killed when Taleban guards entered the Iranian Consulate in Mazar-e Sharif. Despite conflicting reports about their fate, eyewitnesses say that their bodies were left in the consulate for two days, before being buried in a mass grave at the Sultan Razieh girls school.
Following their takeover, Taleban guards imposed a curfew in the city. In the Uzbek populated areas, they told people to hand in their weapons, while in the Hazara area, they told people to stay in their homes. They then entered Hazara houses one by one, killing older men and children and taking away young men without any explanation. In some houses, they also took away young women as Kaniz (maid-servant) saying they would be married off to the Taleban militia.
Detainees, reportedly totalling thousands, were transferred in military vehicles to detention centres in Mazar-e Sharif and Shebarghan and interrogated to identify their ethnic identity. Non-Hazaras were released after a few days.
Former detainees told Amnesty International how all of them were beaten, sometimes severely, during their detention. Hundreds were taken by air to Kandahar and many others taken during the night to fields in the surrounding areas of Mazar-e Sharif and Shebarghan and executed.
Severe restrictions have been imposed on the movement of Afghan people in and out of Mazar-e Sharif. Families who have managed to leave the area have told Amnesty International that they have been stopped at many checkpoints on the way. At each check point, Taleban guards stopped them asking if there were Hazaras among them and took away anyone whom they suspected of being a Hazara. Hazara men and boys younger than 12-years-old have been taken to Jalalabad prison while women and girls have been sent to Sarshahi camp.
Amnesty International is urging the Taleban to bring an end to the killing of non-combatants and prisoners by their militia, and to release all prisoners whom they have arrested solely on account of their ethnic identity.
The organization is also calling for an international body, with a clearly demonstrated independent, impartial and competent structure, to be set up to investigate these human rights abuses with a view to identifying the perpetrators and recommending means of bringing them to justice.
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."