- BERLIN - American soldiers
have been involved in the torture and murder of captured Taliban prisoners,
and may have aided in the "disappearance" of up to 3,000 men
in the region of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to Jamie Doran, an Irish documentary
film-maker.
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- Doran's latest film, Massacre At Mazar, was shown on
Wednesday in in the Reichstag, the German parliament building in Berlin,
and there were immediate calls for an international commission to be set
up to investigate charges made in the documentary.
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- Andrew McEntee, a leading international human rights
lawyer, who has viewed the film footage and read full transcripts, believes
there is prima facie evidence of serious war crimes having been committed
by American soldiers in Afghanistan.
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- 'The Americans did whatever they wanted'McEntee, who
was in Berlin for Wednesday's special screening, said war crimes had been
committed not just under international law but, also, "under the laws
of the United States itself".
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- Much of the footage shown in Doran's 20-minute documentary
was taken secretly, and although witnesses were said to be living in fear
of reprisal from within Afghanistan itself they had all agreed to appear
at any future international war crimes tribunal to give evidence, it was
claimed.
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- One witness in the film claimed he had seen an American
soldier break an Afghan prisoner's neck and pour acid on others. "The
Americans did whatever they wanted. We had no power to stop them,"
he alleged.
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- Sometimes prisoners who were beaten up and taken outside
had "disappeared", he said.
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- In other sequences witnesses, among them two men, claimed
they had been forced to drive into the desert with hundreds of Taliban
prisoners.
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- The living were then summarily shot while 30 to 40 American
soldiers purportedly stood by, it was alleged. The prisoners had been taken
there on the orders of the local American commander, according to the documentary.
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- In the film, an Afghan witness admitted to killing prisoners
himself, and another officer, allegedly a senior officer in the army of
deputy defence minister Dostum's forces, was said to have gone into hiding
following threats to his life.
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- The far-left Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) arranged
for the special showing of Massacre At Mazar in the Reichstag. Party chairman
Roland Claus was cautious regarding its content but did spoke of its attempt
at "authenticity."
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- Andre Brie, a PDS member of the European Parliament,
concerned by reports of ill treatment of Taliban prisoners, said he would
be in favour of an international commission looking into "disturbing"
questions raised by the film.
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- At a press conference Brie said he had known of Doran's
dangerous film activity in Afghanistan, and had helped to support him financially.
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- The PDS party faction had wanted to obtain authentic
footage of the war in Afghanistan, he said.
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- The film was due to be screened at the European Parliament
in Strasbourg later on Wednesday evening. - Sapa-DPA
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- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1023894901416B265&set_id=1
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