-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=104632
}}}>Begin
14 November 2001 05:55 GMT
Independent
No surprise at rumours of new atrocities by our 'foot-soldiers'
War on terrorism
By Robert Fisk
13 November 2001
The Northern Alliance's sudden victories in Afghanistan may be good
news for the West but the bad news is not far behind. The Uzbek,
Tadjik and Hazara gunmen who make up this rag-tag army have a bloody
reputation for torturing and executing prisoners which – if resumed
in the coming days – will plunge America and Britain into a moral
abyss.
Chilling stories of more than 100 pro-Taliban Pakistani fighters shot
dead after their surrender in Mazar-i-Sharif – and of Alliance gunmen
"roaming the streets'' of the abandoned city – will not come as a
surprise to those who are aware of the atrocities committed by
America's new allies during the 1992-96 fighting in Kabul.
For the Americans – and for the minuscule British component of the
West's military forces inside Afghanistan – the behaviour of the
Northern Alliance presents a grave problem. As our "foot-soldiers"
are in Afghanistan, we
cannot disclaim responsibility for human rights abuses by the Alliance's gunmen; yet
neither the Americans nor the British appear to have tried to control the army they
are now helping. Indeed, it seems they may not even
be able to prevent the Alliance from entering Kabul.
The massacres committed by malicious fighting in the name of outside powers have
regularly brought shame upon their more powerful allies. The Contras in Nicaragua and
the Phalangist militiamen in Lebanon contaminated thei
r respective American and Israeli masters – the latter in the notorious Palestinian
camp massacres of Sabra and Chatila in 1982. A glance at the Alliance's track record
of rape, pillage and street executions in Kabul betw
een 1992 and 1996 suggests that the so-called Allies – America, Britain and just about
anyone else who wants to join in – have good reason to exert their influence over the
newly victorious militiamen from the north of Af
ghanistan.
In Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat there are comparatively few Pashtun communities, which
traditionally favour the Taliban.
A bit further south the Alliance will find itself among its ethnic enemies. In 1997,
Mazar's Hazara defenders killed more than 600 Taliban militiamen who had taken over
the city and then massacred dozens of Pakistani stud
ents who had accompanied the Taliban into the region. In later bloodbaths, thousands
of Taliban prisoners were shot into mass graves, with dozens more Pakistanis. A
Northern Alliance turncoat, General Pahlawan Malik, subs
equently executed 2,000 Taliban prisoners of war who had been tortured and starved
before being put to death.
Many were drowned in wells. Others met a more carefully planned
death. One of General Malik's generals recalled: "At night when it
was quiet and dark we took about 150 Taliban prisoners, blindfolded
them, tied their hands behind their backs and drove them in truck
containers out to the desert. We lined them up 10 at a time, in front
of holes in the ground, and opened fire. It took about six nights.''
On other occasions Taliban prisoners were locked inside containers in
mid-summer; 1,250 were deliberately asphyxiated in this way, their
corpses dragged from the containers, blackened by the heat.
Could it happen again? There is no reason to believe the Alliance has
been taking lessons in human rights. It has been receiving ammunition
from Russia and logistics from the United States. Photographs in
yesterday's Pakistani papers showed Alliance gunmen leading a small
party of Western troops through the terrain of northern Afghan-istan.
But our soldiers are highly unlikely to have been distributing copies
of the Geneva Convention to their new friends.
End<{{{
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