Amnesty renews call for inquiry into prison massacre
Amnesty International has renewed its call for an inquiry into the massacre of Taliban prisoners during an uprising at a prison fort near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif last month.
Hundreds of Taliban fighters were slaughtered by the Northern Alliance with the help of British and US soldiers after allegedly over-powering their guards and storming an armoury inside the Qala-e-Janghi compound.
However, after the massacre, many of the dead were found to have their arms tied behind their backs.
Amnesty said the importance of an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the revolt has increased since the surrender of hundreds more Taliban fighters in the southern city of Kandahar this week.
Irene Khan, the new secretary general of Amnesty International, said today: “It is important to get that inquiry, particularly now that there are likely to be more surrenders in Kandahar. It is absolutely essential that proper arrangements be made to process and protect fighters who do surrender and lay down their arms.”
The Northern Alliance and their allies in Britain and the US have justified the crushing of the Qala-e-Janghi revolt by saying that the Taliban soldiers who surrendered had recaptured their arms and were therefore combatants, not prisoners of war.
However, that fails to explain why many of those killed had their hands tied.
The revolt was crushed after the US began bombing the prison fortress from the air.
US and British soldiers also helped Northern Alliance troops on the ground to storm the prison.
Both those countries have since refused to conduct an inquiry to establish the truth of what happened.
Ms Khan said that if America and Britain don’t set up an inquiry, then an international fact-finding commission could be established under the auspices of the Geneva Convention.
“The US and UK are party to the Geneva Convention and they have accepted the responsibility to ensure proper behaviour of their troops,” she said.
“They have an obligation, if they are on the ground, as they were in this case, to make an investigation into these kinds of killings.”
