October 7, 2008

Massacre of Civilians in Jebrail Village in Herat by the Russian Bombardment

Faiz Mohammed, a 60 year old peasant, is one of the survivors of random attacks by air bombardment  of Jebrail Village in Herat on 20th Sonboleh 1362 (13 September  1983). According to the eye witnesses, 17 civilians including children, women and old people were killed in this bombardment and more than 30 people were  injured.

Sorrow and sadness of the loss of  5 members of his family, including 2 young grandchildren, a young daughter, a son in law and an elderly mother-in-law have created a  symbolic figure of resistance for Faiz Mohammed  who  spent more than 2 decades of his life under severe and continuous  bombardment and attacks by the USSR occupier forces and civil wars. Even under such conditions he did not want to leave his village, so he directly  witnessed all the sad incidents.

With a deep sigh and a sad voice Faiz Mohammed talks about the disturbing incident of the Russian air  bombardment that happened in his village: "It was a hot summer  afternoon. As the result of attacks of Russian tanks that happened few days earlier, many had already left the village. Some of them were outside the village and busy with harvesting wheat." He added, "nobody knew where to  escape to. Everywhere was covered by dust and smoke. When the dust disappeared and it became clear everywhere was full of the crying and screaming of people and cats and some shocked people were  running around.  Most of the houses around there had collapsed. I was confused and did not know from where to start and who to call. Suddenly I remembered my daughter and grand children and ran all around, but found none of them. Nobody was alive. Only Gholam Sakhi one of my 3 grandchildren, covered by blood, was found in a corner. He was taken by help of the people to a  hospital in Herat. Gholam Sakhi nearly recovered after  2 months but still the scars of severe injury by bombs are seen on his body and face. For more treatment he was taken to Iran with his Grandmother (on his fathers side). He has now grown up."

Faiz Mohammed said that the head of Gholam Rasool, his son-in-law, and a leg of one of his grand children were found by surrounding people among some rubbles after 3 days. Later, these organs, together with organs left from other victims, were buried in one place.

Arbab Mohammed, 55, from Jebrail Village is also another eyewitness of the bombardment incident of this village by Russian airplanes. He observed the situation from outside the village. He says:The situation of this area had already become bad and then and again the village had been  surrounded by  the  Russian and their  tanks had opened fire. This had made the majority of the residents leave the village."

He said that at 2 pm bombardment started and continued until the next evening’s  prayer time. When the bombardment finished, many people from other villages moved towards Jebrail village to help. But even in this condition, the Russian forces did not leave people in peace and their tanks  from  Armoured 4 forces (based in west of Herat), started to bombard the village with shells.

Arbab Mohammed added that anyway  they  reached the village with few other people and they searched house by house and alley by alley to find the people who had been killed or injured.. He said that in such conditions nobody knew how to help. Most of the houses had collapsed and  most of the approximately 50  residents of the village at the time had been killed or become injured. Many women and children had been injured and covered by dust and were crying and screaming.

With a sad voice Arbab Mohammed  said, "there was nothing left to wrap the martyrs with. With my own hand I wrapped pieces of bodies left in house curtains and buried them in one place."

Abdol Khaleq a 56 year old man was an influential figure of the village and was an activist in a guerrilla group against the Russians. He was in charge of Cultural affairs of the Resistance Front in the area. He described the bombardment incident in this way; "Iwas sitting in the village mosque, which was a historical building, with another person. Suddenly a terrifying sound was heard and the plaster of the roof came down".

He said that they had immediately left the place struck by the rockets  t and after this the airplanes flew over the village and shot rockets and dropped bombs around. Even they had observed that how the historical building of the mosque with its old decoration demolished as result of these attacks from air.

Abdol  Khaleq said that he had counted 20 bodies including children, women and old  people, who had been killed and 37 people who had been injured in this bombardment.

Abdol Khaleq says “Random attacks by the Russian on this village were allegedly launched because of  the Guerrilla presence in the village but all victims were women, children and men who were unable to escape. So these peoplebecame the victims of this inhumane and non Islamic attacks of the Russian."

The man in the cultural charge of the  Resistance Front in the ‘60s talked about a young woman who was found with her six month old little girl trapped under the rubbles. Both of them were rescued by a number of people. In spite of efforts made by a doctor from the neighbouring  Ishaq Solaiman Village to treat them, the young woman died because of severe injuries after an hour, but her little baby  survived. Abdol Khaleq said that the six month old girl in the same year was taken to Iran by her relatives  and now after 25 years,  this girl has married and has 2 children. She lives in Mashhad in Iran.

Jebrail is  a big village in district of Anjil in Herat which was damaged in terms of human and environment during the resistance against the Russian occupation and also the civil war in Afghanistan. Now after 7 years of a new government in power, it has been rebuilt  and  now has been  taken over  by a large number of the ex-emigrants and homeless people returned to the village. But still the consequences of the previous wars and environmental damage are obvious there.

According to the clause 50 of the Additional Protocol of Geneva Convention regarding protection of victims of armed conflicts; civilian communities and also civilians should not be attacked.  Any threats and violence against civilians is not allowed.

In the section 4 of clause 50 of the Additional Protocol of Geneva Convention it has been mentioned that any kind of indiscriminate attack including bombardment of civilian residents as military target and any kind of attacks which may cause excessive harm to civilians and or excessive damage to civilian buildings, compared to the military need for the attack, are prohibited.

Furthermore according to Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (which is now taken as a general statement of customary protections in all conflicts), in order to protect civilians and those who have not directly taken part in the conflicts or  because of illness, injury or any other reason they are unable to continue to fight, there should be humane treatment regardless of their race, religion, beliefs, sex and any other characteristics. Killing, injury, cutting organs and any other cruel action, torture, humiliation, execution is disallowed without putting them on  trial and  order of a legitimateand fair court.

The invasion and occupation by the Russian forces on 6th Jaddy 1356 (28 December 1977) was an excuse for supporting the regime which was  in power at that time and  had a communist ideology. This Russian invasion led to widespread reaction and popular resistance until the Red army left Afghanistan after 10 years of heavy loss and heavy bombardment and killing of civilians.

Invading Afghanistan   by the Russian forces, in spite of signing the Geneva agreement by this country, involved the killing of many civilians. After 2 decades, still none of those who committed these atrocities have been taken as a war criminal to the international tribunal.