From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: ICRC probes NA (US) warcrimes HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- Boston Globe. 16 December 2001. Reported alliance atrocities probed. KABUL -- The International Committee of the Red Cross, the organization committed to protecting civilians and prisoners in war, is investigating allegations of torture, mistreatment, and other harm that hundreds of prisoners and detainees are believed to have suffered at the hands of the Northern Alliance across Afghanistan. A Red Cross official in Kabul said some prisoners, chiefly Taliban fighters, had been burned or subjected to "sordid mistreatment." Others died of wounds to the head, the official said. Such allegations have become the subject of an unpublicized International Red Cross investigation, the official said. The Red Cross routinely investigates prisoner conditions. But the organization - which seeks staunch neutrality because it tries to help civilians and prisoners on all sides of any conflict - tends to be circumspect about its work. Questions about responsibilities for atrocities in Afghanistan are explosive. So sensitive was the issue of whether amnesty should be granted for war crimes that the issue was dropped from the agenda of the UN-brokered talks in Bonn on creating a government. Mistreatment of prisoners has been reported across Afghanistan, from the prison uprising at Mazar-e-Sharif to allegations of killings in Ghor province. Dozens of Taliban prisoners reportedly died after surrendering to Northern Alliance forces in the town of Kunduz, suffocated in the shipping containers in which they had been placed en route to prison. Under the Geneva Conventions, both civilians and prisoners of war are entitled to protection. Prisoners of war, such as surrendered Taliban soldiers, are to be treated humanely, and are to get adequate food and shelter. The International Red Cross, the group whose founder helped draft the first Geneva Convention, tries to ensure that the conventions are upheld. "We look for torture evidence on the detainees, for any signs of mistreatment or assaults on their human dignity," said the International Red Cross official in Kabul. "We have seen that." More than any other independent organization, the Red Cross has had access to Qalai Janghi prison, near Mazar-e-Sharif, the site of a bloody uprising on Nov. 25, which was put down with the help of American airstrikes and which left hundreds dead. Two Red Cross delegates were in the prison that day when gunfire erupted. International Red Cross workers have removed 235 bodies from the prison since then, photographing, tagging, and examining them. In addition, more than 70 bodies have been collected by the Red Cross in the Kabul area. It remains unclear whether they were civilians, combatants, or prisoners. The International Red Cross has begun to interview more than 3,000 detainees in Shibirghan prison, about 80 miles west of Mazar-e-Sharif. It has registered another 700 detainees in 15 prisons or holding pens, mostly in Afghan cities, but, it said, it had not been given enough access to determine if they had been tortured or harmed. The United Nations, which also traditionally investigates human rights abuses, is also examining how prisoners are being treated. Its Kabul office is investigating at least one suspected atrocity. According to reports received by the office, Northern Alliance soldiers allegedly rounded up, killed, and mutilated 170 Taliban soldiers in a village in Ghor province, in western Afghanistan. The remains were hidden in caves and rock crevices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
