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Disturbed Afghan mass grave site must be secured: rights group
Washington (AFP) Dec 15, 2008 A US-based rights group called on Monday for NATO to secure a mass grave in northern Afghanistan that has been disturbed. The Dasht-e-Leili site is suspected of having held up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners, according to Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which discovered the grave in 2002 and has performed autopsies on some of the bodies. In July 2008, an expert from the Boston-based group found two large holes three meters (10 feet) deep in the ground, a possible attempt to remove evidence of alleged killings. The United Nations confirmed the disturbance following a McClatchy Newspapers report last week of three new holes at the site dug up in November. "We demand that the site be immediately secured and protected around the clock ... it very possibly contained evidence of a major war crime," said PHR deputy director Susannah Sirkin, indicating the group had asked for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to help secure the area. The prisoners suffocated to death while being transported in sealed cargo containers after surrendering in November 2001, shortly before the fall of the Taliban, according to a Department of State report. The US-allied Northern Alliance, a group of anti-Taliban Afghan fighters, was transiting the prisoners. Friday, PHR called for an investigation in Afghanistan and the United States to determine whether Afghan warlord General Abdul Rahim Dostum, a Northern Alliance strongman and US ally in the "war on terror," had overseen the alleged atrocities. In asking ISAF commander US General David McKiernan to protect the site, Sirkin claimed the United States "has some responsibility" in the matter. "Also, the US bears a minimum responsibility for ensuring the protection of prisoners who have been captured and imprisoned by its allies," said Sirkin. "We don't know if American forces were at the site or present when these people died, but we do know that they were present during the surrender and the handover of the prisoners." The United Nations pledged Monday it would help Afghan authorities secure the site but the international body does not have security forces in the war-torn country. "PHR is gratified that the UN is calling for the site to be protected, and that they have pledged to assist Afghan authorities in that crucial task," said PHR CEO Frank Donaghue in a statement. "However, full protection of the grave will be dependent upon NATO forces being given the mandate to preserve any remaining evidence and safeguard any surviving witnesses." The group also asked the US government to provided a declassified analysis of the satellite imagery of the site from November 2001 to present, and make the images available to the Afghan government, the United Nations and the US Congress. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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