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Bodies of Foreign Journalists Transferred, Violence Reported in Mazar-i-Sharif
ISLAMABAD, Nov 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - As the bodies of three foreign journalists killed in a Taliban ambush on Sunday left the country for Tajikistan, U.N. officials sounded an alarm Monday concerning the eruption of violence in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif since its capture by opposition forces.
Lindsey Davis, spokeswoman for the United Nation's World Food Program (WFP), said the situation in the northern city - taken by Northern Alliance forces on Friday - was "volatile," and included looting, kidnappings, roving gunmen and summary executions, but did not say who was responsible for the trouble.
"We have reports of looting, abductions of civilians from the city, uncontrolled freelance gunmen," she told reporters here, adding that, "some street battles are ongoing."
Chulho Hyung of the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, said Northern Alliance forces had seized 10 trucks carrying UNICEF relief supplies, while some UNICEF vehicles were stolen by withdrawing Taliban fighters.
Opposition military commander Haji Mohammad Muhaqiq, who told AFP by phone from Mazar-i-Sharif that the city was calm and peaceful, swiftly denied the reports.
"There have been no reports of reprisals against people of any tribe or ethnic group," said Muhaqiq, adding that he was speaking as the opposition's newly appointed interior minister.
But Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman for the office of the U.N. coordinator, cited other unconfirmed reports from Mazar-i-Sharif of "incidents of violence and summary executions."
"We don't know the scale and we don't know the details," Bunker said.
The capture of Mazar-i-Sharif, the strategic capital of Balkh province, on Friday kicked off a series of successes over the ruling Taliban militia that left the opposition in control of virtually all of northern Afghanistan.
The city, once home to more than 200,000 people, has a bloody history of ethnic rivalries.
"In the past, each time Mazar and adjacent areas had changed hands, violent atrocities were committed," Bunker said.
"We urge all parties to make every effort to respect international humanitarian law and to respect human rights."
Forces of the Northern Alliance have been cited in the past by human rights groups for gross human rights abuses in the course of their civil wars within Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch has reported on the torture and executions of Taliban prisoners, as well as rapes and sexual assaults of women.
Northern Alliance commanders said they had ordered most of their men out of Mazar-i-Sharif with the idea of leaving it in the hands of a 300-strong security force.
But reports persisted of pockets of resistance, including a standoff involving some 200 Taliban fighters in a school in the city's south.
Davis also announced that a 22-truck WFP food convoy had been hit by shrapnel from U.S. bombs at the weekend, while en route to the central Afghan city of Bamiyan.
"Two of the trucks were destroyed and the rest sustained other types of damage," Davis said, adding that 80% of the food being carried by the convoy "was damaged and is unusable."
The reports cited by the U.N. officials contrasted sharply with eyewitness accounts from residents reached by telephone in Mazar, who spoke of an atmosphere of joyous celebration following the Taliban's departure.
"Men are shaving off their beards, there's music in all the shops and we have brought out our radios, televisions and video recorders," one resident, who identified himself as Aneef, told AFP from a public phone booth in Mazar.
Meanwhile, the helicopter containing the bodies of the three journalists - identified as Johanne Sutton of Radio France Internationale, Pierre Billaud of Radio Television Luxembourg and Volker Handloik, a freelance reporter who had worked for the German weekly Stern - who were killed Sunday, was on its way to Dushanbe in Tajikistan.
They were believed to be the first members of the press to die in Afghanistan since the United States launched its airstrike campaign there on October 7.
Correspondents at the scene said the journalists were riding on an opposition tank and were thrown off when it sped up to evade a Taliban rocket attack. The three bodies were found riddled with bullets, though it is unclear who shot them.
French president Jacques Chirac expressed his "immense sadness" about the deaths during a joint news conference in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak.
"They died while serving their vocation, their profession and the truth… This deserves a particular homage from each one of us as well as from the nation," said Chirac, who presented his condolences to the victims' families, friends and colleagues.
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