Dasht-i-Leili massacre
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The Dasht-i-Leili massacre allegedly occurred in December 2001 during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan where between 250 and 3,000 (depending on sources) Taliban prisoners were shot and/or suffocated to death in metal truck containers, while being transferred by U.S. and Northern Alliance soldiers from Kunduz to Sheberghan prison in Afghanistan.
The transferred prisoners were under supervision of forces loyal to General Rashid Dostum and some of them were survivors of the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi in Mazari Sharif. According to all sources, many of the prisoners died from suffocation inside the containers and some witnesses claim that those who survived were raked with gunfire. The dead were buried in a mass grave under the authority of Commander Kamal. Those who participated in the burial included Commander Taher Charkhi, who voices no regret for their deaths. "Thousands should have died, not hundreds," he has said.[1]
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[edit] Controversy over responsibility and scale
The controversy surrounds the accounts of two individuals, filmmaker Jamie Doran and writer Robert Young Pelton who was traveling with the U.S. Special Forces attached to Abdul Rashid Dostum’s forces. Doran blames Dostum’s forces for the deaths of the Taliban prisoners. Pelton, on the other hand, completely disputes Doran’s claims.
Doran’s documentary Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death documents the evidence based largely on the work of award-winning Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi, who says he has seen video evidence of the survivors of the convoy being executed in the desert under supervision of US soldiers, but claims the video was stolen from him, in an incident where he was nearly beaten to death because of his possession of the tape. Doran himself admitted in an interview with Stefan Steinberg that he in fact had absolutely no evidence that American troops were involved in the alleged shootings [1], but believes his sources as to the validity of the massacre charges. Doran claims that Dostum is keeping the video under wraps to blackmail the United States into keeping him in power, although he has no evidence for this claim.
Pelton travelled to Afghanistan about a month before Dasht-i-Leili, while on assignment for National Geographic and CNN. He says that Dostum went out of his way, even defying the U.S., to ensure the safety of the roughly 10,000 Taliban fighters who surrendered in and around Kunduz. "We (the U.S. and Northern Alliance) could have wiped out every Talib on earth and no one would have cared," Pelton says. "There is no cover-up because nothing happened." Pelton’s dispute with Doran is that he is accusing the Green Berets of war crimes murder without any direct evidence. Pelton also says that if Doran will provide him with pictures or video of any US soldier shooting any unarmed Taliban prisoner, that Pelton would personally identify that soldier. [2] He also observed and photographed US Special Force’s medics performing first aid on the wounded Taliban forces.
Pelton concedes that roughly 250 Taliban soldiers did suffocate to death but believes that the confinement was necessary because many of the Taliban forces were still armed and could not be trusted. Pelton argues that any bodies outside of the 250 Taliban fighters who did die, are likely to be some of the estimated 2,000 Talibs allegedly shot by commander Abdul Malik in 1997 and/or the 10,000 people of Hazara origin killed in Mazar-i-Sharif under Taliban rule later.
Hilal Uddin, Deputy Interior Minister of Afghanistan, blames negligence for the deaths: "He [Dostum] is a stupid man. These containers are for carrying goods, not for carrying human beings. But still he should have been smart enough to shoot holes in the containers so these prisoners could breathe." Describing specific responsibility, he says, "When Kamal reached Sheberghan and discovered that hundreds of his prisoners had died, he was afraid and just buried them on the spot. He was particularly afraid of what Gen. Dostum would say when he found out. But, in my view, Kamal did not want to kill these people. He was using these containers because he was worried about security and a break-out."[1]
[edit] Subsequent investigations
The Vermont-based Physicians for Human Rights carried out preliminary excavations at the gravesite at Mazar, but concluded that in the absence of a forensic excavation, the identities of those killed, and therefore the veracity of Doran's allegations, cannot be determined [3]. A UN forensic team exhumed three bodies and concluded that they had died as a result of suffocation. Further investigation has been impeded by Rashid Dostum's continuing military control over the area and due to intimidation and death of witnesses.[2]
