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Dostam Rejects 1,000 Talibans Suffocated To Death Under His Custody
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In May, the United Nations said a U.N. team of forensic scientists found evidence of widespread death by suffocation among bodies uncovered in a large mass grave
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KABUL,
Aug 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S.-allied Afghan
warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam has rejected accusations that some 1,000
Taliban prisoners suffocated while in his custody and pledged to
cooperate with any investigation into the deaths, news agencies
reported.
Dostam,
in a joint statement with two other senior Northern Alliance
commanders, admitted that some 200 Taliban followers died in
containers while they were being shipped to a prison at his northern
Shebarghan stronghold late last year after a lengthy siege in the city
of Kunduz, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
But
the statement said the deaths were mainly as a result of injuries
sustained by the prisoners in the fighting at Kunduz and emphasized
that their deaths were not intentional.
"The
operation of sending prisoners to Shebarghan prison continued for four
days. In no case were any prisoners killed. In no case was there any
intention that they should die in containers," it said.
"It
was of our utmost interest and that of the international coalition to
interrogate the prisoners."
The
commanders listed suffocation as one of several causes of the 200
deaths they accepted.
"Most
of (the deaths) were due to wounds suffered in the fighting but also
due to disease, suffocation, suicide and a general weakness after
weeks of intense fighting and bombardment."
A
report by Newsweek magazine earlier this month cited a witness quoted
in an internal United Nations memorandum who said some 960 people died
in the containers.
The
memorandum said their bodies were now buried in the sands of
Dasht-e-Leili near Shebarghan.
"The
refusal of the United States to acknowledge and investigate the
possibility that its military partner murdered hundreds or thousands
of prisoners is a terrible repudiation of its commitment to hold
perpetrators of war crimes accountable for their deeds," said
Leonard S. Rubenstein, executive director of Physicians for Human
Rights, in a statement released Sunday, August 18.
In
May, the United Nations said that a U.N. team of forensic scientists
found evidence of widespread death by suffocation among bodies
uncovered in a large mass grave in the desert near Shibergan, saying
the bodies had been buried with heavy machinery over a large area of
the desert.
U.S.
troops were aware of reports of container deaths, Newsweek said. But
the magazine found no evidence U.S. soldiers were involved or
witnessed the deaths.
"I
have read in news media about suspected mass graves, but I don't know
anything about asphyxiation containers, or validated mass graves. I
don't know if its true," U.S. Central Command spokesman Major
John Robinson told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Newsweek
said the Red Cross and the United Nations both looked into reports of
hundreds of dead Taliban prisoners buried in mass graves outside of
Shibergan prison in December.
But
the statement, which was also signed by the powerful Tajik commander
Atta Mohammad and local Hazara leader Sardar Mohammad Sahidi, said
that "we believe these numbers are totally inaccurate."
The
statement said that United Nations investigators and human rights
teams had been given full access to the site.
"We
have been open to the best of our ability about the numbers and
events.... Both the UN and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) have
never confirmed the numbers."
The
Boston-based rights group PHR, which carried out a preliminary
investigation at Dasht-e-Leili earlier this year, has said the site is
the most significant mass grave in northern Afghanistan
but has not made any claim as to how many bodies may be buried.
Initial
investigations by the UN on a handful bodies have determined that they
died of suffocation.
The
UN's special representative to Afghanistan,
Lakhdar Brahimi, said earlier this week that no formal investigation
had been launched into the grave.
The
newly-launched independent Afghan Human Rights Commission is expected
to eventually hold an inquiry. The UN and the Afghan government have
both pledged to give any investigation their full cooperation.
The
site has not been secured but UN officials have made regular visits
and are satisfied that it has not been tampered with.
Dostam,
Mohammad and Sahidi said "we are ready to cooperate with any
investigation as we have always been. We are ready to bring to justice
any personality proved to be guilty of serious violation."
The
three also expressed anger at the attention that has been lavished on
the Dasht-e-Leili incident. Claims of massacres against ethnic
Hazaras, Uzbeks and Tajiks carried out by the mainly Pashtun Taliban
in the north have gone largely unreported.
"There
has been no serious reporting questioning about Taliban atrocities or
about those who have previously supported the Taliban.
"We
believe that (any investigation) must also examine the Taliban and
al-Qaeda atrocities which have been committed against the people of
the north, west and central parts of the country."
Dostam
is one of the most controversial figures in Afghan politics. The
one-time communist helped reduce large parts of Kabul to rubble in the
early 1990s as his forces attacked troops loyal to the then government
of President Burhanuddin Rabanni and his defense minister Ahmad Shah
Masood.
But
he later patched up his differences with Masood and joined the
Northern Alliance, which teamed up with the US-led coalition late last
year to oust the Taliban after the September 11 terror attacks.
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