Posted 11:30 p.m. Nov. 30
By Alex Kingsbury
U-WIRE Washington Bureau
MANCHESTER, England - Today we are learning how the Geneva Convention is applied in Afghanistan.
The Taliban, ruthless and murderous beyond a doubt, are now in retreat and the Northern Alliance backed by American bombers and Special Forces is sweeping to control surrendered territory. However, with each success of the Northern Alliance, come an equal number of alleged human rights violations.
We must ask ourselves; what is the price we are paying for our support of these people? Have we swapped one horror for another? London's newspapers Friday featured front-page spreads of Northern Alliance troops yanking the gold teeth out of the fallen Taliban enemy with a long wrench and Alliance soldiers kicking and spitting on bound Taliban corpses, desecrating to the last their fellow countrymen. The words "massacre" and "slaughter" were unavoidable. The massacre, or quelled uprising, at the prison of Qala-i Janghi in Mazar-e-Sharif is difficult to ignore. Eyewitnesses at the three-day battle describe frightening scenes of undisciplined troops from the Northern Alliance killing prisoners still bound awaiting interrogation. There were no survivors from the 500 prisoners held in the fort.
The United States has announced that it is also formally investigating the alleged killing of 160 unarmed Taliban prisoners near Kandahar, apparently in the presence of U.S. personnel who witnessed but were unable to stop the massacre while filming an Alliance attack.
Amnesty International has called for an investigation. Yet, Alliance leaders in Bonn have taken the proposed U.N. peacekeeping force off the negotiating table, claiming that "if additional security is required we will provide it."
When President Bush addressed the world following the Sept. 11 attacks, he said that either you were for the terrorists or against them. That if you were harboring or aiding a terrorist you were a terrorist and directly accountable for their actions as if they were your own.
By Alex Kingsbury
U-WIRE Washington Bureau
MANCHESTER, England - Today we are learning how the Geneva Convention is applied in Afghanistan.
The Taliban, ruthless and murderous beyond a doubt, are now in retreat and the Northern Alliance backed by American bombers and Special Forces is sweeping to control surrendered territory. However, with each success of the Northern Alliance, come an equal number of alleged human rights violations.
We must ask ourselves; what is the price we are paying for our support of these people? Have we swapped one horror for another? London's newspapers Friday featured front-page spreads of Northern Alliance troops yanking the gold teeth out of the fallen Taliban enemy with a long wrench and Alliance soldiers kicking and spitting on bound Taliban corpses, desecrating to the last their fellow countrymen. The words "massacre" and "slaughter" were unavoidable. The massacre, or quelled uprising, at the prison of Qala-i Janghi in Mazar-e-Sharif is difficult to ignore. Eyewitnesses at the three-day battle describe frightening scenes of undisciplined troops from the Northern Alliance killing prisoners still bound awaiting interrogation. There were no survivors from the 500 prisoners held in the fort.
The United States has announced that it is also formally investigating the alleged killing of 160 unarmed Taliban prisoners near Kandahar, apparently in the presence of U.S. personnel who witnessed but were unable to stop the massacre while filming an Alliance attack.
Amnesty International has called for an investigation. Yet, Alliance leaders in Bonn have taken the proposed U.N. peacekeeping force off the negotiating table, claiming that "if additional security is required we will provide it."
When President Bush addressed the world following the Sept. 11 attacks, he said that either you were for the terrorists or against them. That if you were harboring or aiding a terrorist you were a terrorist and directly accountable for their actions as if they were your own.
