October 6, 2008

The Kerala Tragedy was neither First nor Last

By Ikramullah Ikram

Thirty years after a massacre of civilians in the village of Kerala, in Kunar province, relatives of those killed continue to demand the trial of government officials responsible for the incident.

In this connection, they gathered in the provincial capital Asadabad on thirty first of Wray of the current solar year [20/05/2008]. Participants in the meeting, including tribal elders, religious scholars, officials and residents of the area, demanded of the government that the people responsible for the incident should be identified and tried in a court of law.

The participants who held the meeting to remember the Kerala mass-killing issued a resolution.  The resolution states that a total of 13 people were involved in the mass-killing, of which 10 people have died while three are still alive. According to the resolution, among the people still living are commander of 444 commando Corps in 1358 (1979), Sadiq Alamyar, who is now living in Holland, commander of 11th Corps, Major Gulrang who is now in Pakistan and another person who is known as Shamsher Nariwal.

The incident happened 30 years ago in early 1979 when the Kunar River was spreading prosperity in the area, the officials of the then communist regime meted out what the people call it “an extreme of cruelty” to the Kerala village of the said province.

It was 10: 00 a.m. on Friday, 20th April 1979, last day of the Persian year, when the mass-killing in Kerala village was carried out in which 1200 villagers were killed.

Kerala village is one of the central villages of Asadabad, capital of Kunar province which is connected with the City through a large bridge.

The village is situated in an area when any one comes to the provincial capital they have to pass from the said village before entering Asadabad city.

The village now considered a part of the provincial centre was hosting tens of families at that time and most of them were farmers.

Before the mass killing, according to residents of the area, the villagers had spent one month in sheer helplessness and economic siege as the then rulers had blocked all food supply lines thinking that anti-government elements might benefit from it.

If we look into the history of mass-killings in Afghanistan, it appears that the sequence of massacres began soon after the fall of the Zahir Shah government the heart-rending stories of which are still refreshing the memories in people’s hearts with each passing day.

Many historians give the 40 year rule of Zahir Shah the title of “an era far from fighting” in the history of Afghanistan and say people were not living prosperous lives at  that time but that it was nevertheless better than other periods. Since 1971 ground was leveled for political rivalries and the then government officials put a large number of their opponents behind the bars.When Mohammed Daoud Khan took power of the government in 1973, he imprisoned many of his opponents including members of Islamic parties and started torturing them.

Most of the scholars link the killing of innocent people to that time but in fact the sequence of mass-killing gained strength after Daoud Khan was martyred in a bloody coup in 1978.

The Kerala mass-killing by the then regime happened one year after the killing of Daoud Khan.

Residents of the village say “over 1200 civilians have been mass murdered.” Gulzada, now 75, was working in the communication department at that time reported the killing of 18 members of his family with tears trickling down from his face and said, “Mujahedeen entered the village at night and fighting erupted in the province and when they left in the morning, Khalqian (communists) came and told the villagers that they had been invited by the governor. They told the villagers that the village was going to bombard. When all the people came out of their houses, they assembled them and started the killing.”

Nizamuddin Khan was the governor of Kunar province at the time.

Gulzada says Mujahedeen had entered the village on their own but the government killed innocent villagers and their relatives.

Gulzada remembers the dead including Ibrahim Khan, Asadullah, Amanullah, Abdul Ghafar, Arab Khan, Shah Nadar, Abdur Rahmand, Habibur Rahman, Noor Rahman, Faqir Muhammad, Abdul Qayum and Bawar Khan all of whom were farmers.

According to him, he had not yet reached the place of the killing when firing was opened on the villagers, he reached and jumped into the river after fleeing through another way and crossed to the other side.

Gulzada adds: “Only a few people that could be counted on finger tips, escaped alive and all the remaining males were perished”. According to him, some Khalqis (Communists) of the then regime were also among the dead.

On the other hand, several officials and soldiers of the then regime also confirm the mass-killing in Kerala and declare it a gross violation of human rights but say several such people who were involved in the armed uprising against government were also among the dead.

An eyewitness of the Kerala mass-killing and a soldier of the then regime who wished not to be named said, “The killing of civilians in Kerala was in violation of human rights and the laws of war, but there were several such people who were carrying out armed uprising against the government.”

The villagers, however, unanimously reject the assertions and say that anti-government elements were not among those killed in Kerala.

Inam-ul-Haq, a resident of the same area says, “Those killed were all residents of the village and refugees of Shegal, Marawara and Peach valley who had fled from fighting in their respective areas and arrived and settled there.”

Besides the above mentioned three people whose names have been mentioned in the resolution of local residents, the village dwellers also collectively recalled the name of another person, Noor Rahman, who, according to them, was secretary of the then ruling Provincial Council of Kunar and head of tribal affairs and is thought by some to have been involved in the incident.

The head of youth organization of the then regime, Gul Rahim Sherda confirms that Noor Rahman was in charge of border affairs at that time and now is living in Moscow.

He also said that residents of the area have no positive views about Noor Rahman and see him involved in the incident. He, however, avoided giving further details.

He recalls, “Noor Rahman was in charge of border affairs at that time and now he has private business in Moscow. I was head of the youth organization in Kabul and have no further details of the incident.”

Another resident of Kerala village, Shams ur Rahman, who is also an eyewitness of the incident and was minor child at that time, says “the village also undergone fighting in the night. The mujahedeen were firing from one side and the government soldiers from the other. But when mujahedeen retreated in the morning, government forces got the villagers out from their houses and collected them in the fields and ditches which were considered to be the hideouts of villagers during the fighting.

He said, “I was also with males. But they let me go as I was a child. Some other children were also told to go along me. After it, they suddenly started shooting the men standing there and killed our brothers, uncles, fathers and cousins before our eyes.

According to him, several soldiers were also killed for refusing the order of shooting.

They buried the victims by bulldozers while there were still movements under it (means some of the victims were alive), he added.

It is to be mentioned that 15 members of the family of Shams ul Rehman were killed in the incident.

Sherin, a witness of the burying, remembers the incident: “Cries of the victims still reverberate in my ears. When an injured man would try to raise his head from the ditch, the bulldozer’s blade would hit him and throw him in forever.”The area, he said, was cordoned off by the army for many days and no one was permitted to go near.

A monument has been erected on the tombs of the martyrs which reminds to the people the bitter and heart-wrenching incidents of the past. The monument is inscribed with these words: “These brave martyrs were brutally mass killed by the Red Regime and were buried by bulldozers during the second year of the Communist Revolution (January 01, 1979).

Inamul Haq, another resident of the area and a witness of the brutal incident, then 9, said: “They gathered the villagers and they ordered the armed men to shoot them. Among the villagers were many employees and on duty servants of the then government.”

He referred to Mohammad Yasin, an official of the then government, according to him, who showed his duty card to the soldiers but they killed him too.

“The federal government”, Inamul Haq adds, “was backing the provincial government in the Kerala mass killing because provincial officials cannot kill so many people on their own.” The question is, however, that were the then central officials really involved in this mass killing? A reasonable answer to this question is yet to be found.

The Kerala mass killing in Kunar province is considered a dreadful incident in the area as well as in the whole Afghanistan. A senator of the present Afghan government and resident of the same village, Haji Mishwani, who was fighting against the government then, believes that incidents like this happen regularly between two warring parties which cause low or high casualties to the civilians. “We condemn the Kerala incident in which hundreds of civilians were killed. We have demanded the government and the international community to arrest and try those in a court of law who were involved in the killing, but they (the government and the international community) have not been succeeded yet.”

Most of the residents of the Kerala village who are still alive demand the arrest of the then officials who were involved in the mass killing; they say the government of President Karzai should have brought them to justice.

A resident of Kunar province, Khan Mohammad, 35, hoped all of the war criminals would be brought to justice in the government of President Karzai.

According to him, not only the people of Afghanistan remained just hoping for this, but the worse is that members of Afghan Parliament approved a motion to grant impunity to such war criminals.

This motion was approved by Parliament in 2007. According to the motion, all belligerent groups that were involved in fighting will not be prosecuted legally and judicially. While people think that only the masses of Afghanistan can grant impunity to the war criminals, not government councils.

Abdul Rehman, director of Human Rights and Environment Protection, believes this motion is only a mutual agreement between political parties; it does not have any good result for the people Afghanistan nor it can become an official document. He adds: “Giving amnesty to the war criminals is a right of the people of Afghanistan and no one can deprive them from this right.”

Yet some people in Afghanistan argue that the laws of the country were not based on the grounds that could open way to the trials of the war criminals. But experts and members of human rights’ organizations say that the criminals could be tried in international courts if a country has not the power to bring them to a trial or its regulations do not cover the issue.

Ghulam Sakhi Saskai is a long time member of human rights organizations. He acknowledges the problems of judges and attorneys in Afghanistan and says that judges and attorneys of the Hague-based International Criminal Court should help Afghanistan in this regard and try the criminals in an international court. [Editor’s note: the ICC would not have jurisdiction over acts committed before Afghanistan ratified the Court’s statute in 2003, unless the UN Security Council voted to give it the power to hear earlier cases.]

He further said: “We have asked the government to open trials of the war criminals. But unfortunately the government is indifferent on this issue.”

On the other hand, Mr. Hotaki underlines the need of a sound willpower for this purpose and says it will be difficult to achieve the goal without a sound willpower even if the laws were existed. He says: “We can’t bring the criminals to courts despite the laws if we are not willing.”

The allegations about the killings in Kerala suggest they may have been both war crimes and crimes against humanity, crimes that may be tried before international tribunals or courts in other countries under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Now it is upon the government to find a way and try the war criminals in a court. This would be an answer to the long lasting demand of the people.

It merits mentioning here that the Kerala incident was neither first nor the last tragedy in which our people were mass killed and buried. Incidents of Palegoon in Kabul, Dasht-e-Laila in Mazar-e-Sharif and the recent finding of mass graves in Chamtala near Kabul are other incidents of this kind.