Afghan War Documentary Charges Us With Mass Killings Of Pow's

by Stefan Steinberg
June 19, 2002

A documentary film, Massacre in Mazar, by Irish director Jamie Doran, was
shown to selected audiences in Europe last week, provoking demands for an
international inquiry into US war crimes in Afghanistan. The film alleges
that American troops collaborated in the torture of POWs and the killing of
thousands of captured Taliban soldiers near the town of Mazar-i-Sharif. It
documents events following the November 21, 2001 fall of Konduz, the
Taliban's last stronghold in northern Afghanistan. The film was shown in
Berlin by the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) parliamentary fraction to
members of the German parliament on June 12. The following day it was shown
to deputies and members of the press at the European parliament in
Strasbourg. After seeing the film, French Euro MP Francis Wurtz, a member of
the United Left fraction that organised the showing, said he would call for
an urgent debate on the issues raised in the film at the next session of the
European parliament in July. A number of other deputies in the European
parliament called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to carry
out an independent investigation into the allegations raised in the film.
Leading international human rights lawyer Andrew McEntee, who was present at
the special screening in Berlin, said it was "clear there is prima facie
evidence of serious war crimes committed not just under international law,
but also under the laws of the United States itself." McEntee called for an
independent investigation. "No functioning criminal justice system can choose
to ignore this evidence," he said. The Pentagon issued a statement June 13
denying the allegations of US complicity in the torture and murder of POWs,
and the US State Department followed suit with a formal denial on June 14.
Doran, an award-winning independent filmmaker, whose documentaries have been
seen in over 35 countries, said he decided to release a rough cut of his
account of war crimes because he feared Afghan forces were about to cover up
the evidence of mass killings. "It's absolutely essential that the site of
the mass grave is protected," Doran told United Press International after the
screening in Strasbourg. "Otherwise the evidence will disappear." Doran's
call for the preservation of evidence was echoed by the Boston-based
Physicians for Human Rights, which issued a statement June 14 urging that
immediate steps be taken to safeguard the gravesite of the alleged victims
near Mazar-i-Sharif. Late last year Doran shot footage of the aftermath of
the massacre of hundreds of captured Taliban troops at the Qala-i-Janghi
prison fortress outside of Mazar-i-Sharif. His film clips, showing prisoners
who had apparently been shot with their hands tied, ignited an international
outcry over the conduct of American special operations forces and their
Northern Alliance allies. Doran's new film includes interviews with
eyewitnesses to torture and the slaughter of some 3,000 POWs. It also
contains footage of the desert scene where the alleged massacre took place.
Skulls, clothing and limbs still protrude from the mound of sand, more than
six months after the event. The film has received widespread coverage in the
European press, with articles featured in some of the main French and German
newspapers (Le Monde, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt). Jamie Doran has also
given interviews to two of the main German television companies. While the
documentary has become a major news story in Europe, it has been virtually
blacked out by the American media. The UPI released a dispatch on the
screenings last week, yet the existence of the film has not even been
reported by such leading newspapers as the New York Times, the Los Angeles
Times and the Washington Post. The film and its allegations of US war crimes
have been similarly suppressed by the television networks and cable news
channels. This reporter was able to view the 20-minute-long documentary in
Berlin. In the course of the film a series of witnesses appear and testify
that American military forces participated in the armed assault and killing
of several hundred Taliban prisoners in the Qala-i-Janghi fortress. Witnesses
also allege that, following the events at Qala-i-Janghi, the American army
command was complicit in the killing and disposal of a further 3,000
prisoners, out of a total of 8,000 who surrendered after the battle of
Konduz. Afghan witnesses who speak of these atrocities are not identified by
name, but, according to the director, all those testifying in the film are
willing to give their names and appear before an international tribunal to
investigate the events of the end of last November and beginning of December.
In Doran's film, Amir Jahn, an ally of Northern Alliance leader General
Rashid Dostum, states that the Islamic soldiers who surrendered at Konduz did
so only on the condition that their lives would be spared. Some 470 captives
were incarcerated in Qala-i-Janghi. The remaining 7,500 were sent to another
prison at Kala-i-Zein. Following a revolt by a number of the prisoners in
Qala-i-Janghi, the fortress was subjected to a massive barrage from the air
as well as the ground by American troops. The atrocities inside Qala-i-Janghi
are confirmed in the film by the head of the regional Red Cross, Simon
Brookes, who visited the fort shortly after the massacre. He investigated the
area and found bodies, many with their faces twisted in agony. The American
Taliban supporter John Walker Lindh was one of 86 Taliban fighters who were
able to survive the massacre by hiding in tunnels beneath the fort . In one
chilling scene in the film, we witness actual footage, secretly shot, of the
interrogation of Lindh. We see him kneeling in the desert, in front of a long
row of captive Afghans, being interrogated by two CIA officers. The officer
leading the interrogation is heard to say: "But the problem is he needs to
decide if he lives or dies. If he does not want to die here, he is going to
die here, because we are going to leave him here and he's going to stay in
prison for the rest of his life." 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."
Another Afghan soldier states, "They cut off fingers, they cut tongues, they
cut their hair and cut their beards. Sometimes they did it for pleasure; they
took the prisoners outside and beat them up and then returned them to the
prison. But sometimes they were never returned and they disappeared, the
prisoner disappeared. I was there." Another Afghan witness alleges that, in
order to avoid detection by satellite cameras, American officers demanded the
drivers take their containers full of dead and living victims to a spot in
the desert and dump them. Two of the Afghan civilian truck drivers confirm
that they witnessed the dumping of an estimated 3,000 prisoners in the
desert. According to one of the drivers, while 30 to 40 American soldiers
stood by, those prisoners still living were shot and left in the desert to be
eaten by dogs. The final harrowing scenes of the film feature a panorama of
bones, skulls and pieces of clothing littering the desert.