HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
It's not about honouring those who died on 9/11. It's about *avenging* them. Remember Bush's words during the first days after 9/11....before his spin doctors got him to refer to his planned mass murder and butchery as "justice" instead of "revenge"? mart ----- Original Message ----- From: Nancy Hey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 10:54 PM Subject: Khanabad 'decimated by the Americans, 100 civilians killed' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK > HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK > --------------------------- > > I wonder how many more innocent people have to die before Americans finally > wake up and smell the coffee and realize that their government is committing > war crimes against these people. This is definitely not the way to honor > those who died on 9/11/01! > > Khanabad 'decimated by the Americans, 100 civilians killed' > > 27.11.2001 > 1:00 pm - By JUSTIN HUGGLER > > KHANABAD - When we heard the explosion, we were > walking though the bombed out ruins of Khanabad, near > the Tajikistan border in the northeast of Afghanistan. > > When we got there, picking our way through the collapsed > remains of houses, an old man sat in his blood blinking > and shaking his head in bewilderment. Beside him, a > 15-year-old boy lay bleeding and unconscious. > > They had trodden on one of the American cluster bombs > that litter the fields and roadside around Khanabad. > > The Americans have killed more than 100 unarmed > civilians in Khanabad in the last two weeks, relentlessly > bombing heavily populated residential areas in the town, > which was one of the last under Taleban control. > > The Independent first reported allegations of civilian deaths > made by fleeing refugees a week ago. Yesterday, after the > Taleban finally fled the town, those allegations were > confirmed. > > Whole suburbs of Khanabad have been decimated. In the > suburb of Charikari, we found giant craters and piles of > rubble where houses used to be. Burnt, blackened stumps > of trees poked through the rubble. Here and there, a > fragment of a house was till standing, half a room, open at > one end where the rest had collapsed. > > Juma Khan was poking around the crater where most of > his family died with a shovel. His wife and six of his > children, his brother and all his brother's children died in > there when the American bomb struck: 15 people in all. > > A child's black gumboot lay in the rubble. It could have > belonged to Mr Khan's five-year-old son Hakimullah, or his > three-year-old daughter Hamza. > > The bomb fell at 8am, when the whole family was sitting > inside the house. A neighbour, Abdul Qadir, had dropped in > to visit. He died too. > > "I was just sitting there. The next thing I knew, people were > digging me out of the rubble," Mr Khan said. > > He saw them dig out his 11-year-old daughter, Gulshan, > the only other survivor. She has severe head injuries. "I just > started crying out for help," said Mr Khan. But everyone else > in the rubble was already dead. > > "I don't know who to blame," said Mr Khan. He didn't even > know it was the Americans who killed his wife and children. > "Maybe it was the Taleban bombing," he said "The planes > came and bombed my home. I don't know why. But whoever > bombed me is my enemy." > > Another man beckoned us towards the remains of his > house. It wasn't until we had climbed onto the pile of rubble > that was all that was left that he told us we were standing > on top of an unexploded bomb. He wanted to know if we > thought it was safe for him to move back into the remains > with his family. They survived because they were already > fleeing when the bomb hit. > > "When the bomb hit, I was knocked over by the blast," he > told us. "When I came to, I staggered out of the house, but > then I felt my legs give way and I fainted again." > > General Mohammed Daud of the Northern Alliance claimed > that only 13 people were killed in Khanabad when one > bomb went astray. That was patently untrue. > > One of the refugees who fled named one of the families > killed as that of Agha Pedar. Yesterday we found a survivor > from Mr Pedar's family, Faizullah. > > "I only lived because I was sitting inside," said the young > man, a cousin of Mr Pedar's. "The others, who were all > sitting outside, were killed." > > Faizullah's father, Mr Pedar's son and daughter, and a > neighbour, were all killed by the bomb. > > The cluster bombs, innocuous-looking yellow tubes, littered > the fields and roads around the town, and you had to look > carefully before every step. Some of them still had the tiny > parachutes on which they float down out of the sky. > > Nearby we found the remains of the canister in which they > are dropped from the American planes, half of a > six-foot-long green cylinder, twisted by the impact when it hit > the ground. > > "Are they dangerous?" a returning refugee asked us about > the cluster bombs. Another wanted to know if it was safe to > pick one up. > > The answer lay bleeding by the roadside: 15-year-old > Habibullah with his stomach torn open, Nur Mohammed, > the old man, moaning in agony. There were two other men > lying injured beside them. They were returning refugees > who tried to take a short cut through a field full of cluster > bombs. > > When they reached the hospital, there was no one there to > treat them. The Taleban used it as a barracks, and most of > the doctors had fled the town. The boy, Habibullah, was in > serious condition, and when he finally reached the hospital > in the next town, an hour away, the doctors were not sure he > would survive. > > Nur Mohammed was treated by the only doctor in > Khanabad, Gholam Rasul Talash. It was he who gave us > the figure of 100 civilian deaths. It was entirely consistent > with the number of bombed houses. > > There was no clue as to why the Americans decided to > bomb residential areas of Khanabad - and to use cluster > bombs, which are designed to kill and maim. > > Some refugees said that foreign Taleban fighters had been > hiding inside the houses - but the people we met outside > the ruins of their homes said that was not true. There was a > Taleban barracks nearby - but the Americans did not > appear to have hit that. > > One of the refugees told us he had stayed up all night > digging a mass grave for the dead. In the cemetery, we > found the huge grave of Mr Khan's family. It could have been > this one the refugee dug. > > Mr Khan stood blinking in the sun. His wife and six of his > children were killed in an instant by an American bomb. > "What do I do now?" he asked. "I just don't know." > > - INDEPENDENT > > ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
