Reports of War Crimes by both Northern Alliance and Taliban
In the space of a day, both the Northern Alliance and the Taliban
were reported to have committed actions that constitute war crimes.
On November 12, as they advanced deep into Taliban territory on their
campaign toward Kabul, Alliance soldiers killed enemy combatants who
had surrendered and were begging for their lives. Not only did they
murder captives, they also looted and mutilated their corpses. This
is a war crime, under Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions of
1949, which states: "Persons taking no active part in the hostilities,
including members of the armed forces who have laid down their arms
and those placed hors
de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause,
shall in all circumstances be treated humanely."
On November 13, in the northeastern city of Kunduz, a Taliban commander
announced that he was defecting and invited the Northern Alliance
to enter and take control of the town. As the Alliance troops approached,
they were ambushed by Taliban rockets. Many were killed in the sudden,
chaotic retreat.
While the laws and customs of war do not prohibit ruses, decoys and
other deceptive maneuvers (for example, staging an assemblage of ships
when a land attack is actually being prepared), the Geneva Conventions
(Article 37 of Protocol 1) do expressly prohibit "acts inviting
the confidence of an adversary to lead him to believe that he is entitled
to
protection under the rules of international law." In
falsely defecting and promising allegiance to the Northern Alliance
and in treacherously offering the city of Kudzun, the Taliban committed
an act of perfidy.
Fighting still rages in Kudzun among various factions of Taliban and
the Northern Alliance. The splintering of the Taliban, and bitter
rivalries among Taliban chiefs, has intensified concern about the
possibility of war crimes, and so has the continued Northern Alliance
refusal to accept authentic offers of surrender.
Selected
Excerpts
Executions
of P.O.W.'s Cast Doubts on Alliance
By David Rhode
NY
Times, November 13, 2001
ALA-I-NASRO, Afghanistan, Nov. 12 Near an abandoned Taliban
bunker, Northern Alliance soldiers dragged a wounded Taliban soldier
out of a ditch today. As the terrified man begged for his life,
the alliance soldiers pulled him to his feet.
They
searched him and emptied his pockets. Then, one soldier fired two
bursts from his rifle into the man's chest. A second soldier beat
the lifeless body with his rifle butt. A third repeatedly smashed
a rocket- propelled-grenade launcher into the man's head.
The
killing occurred minutes after Northern Alliance soldiers, advancing
toward Kabul, surged deep into Taliban territory. They chose to
celebrate with executions.
Ten
yards away lay the body of a younger man who alliance soldiers said
was a Pakistani. He was on his side with his arms extended. In the
side of his head was a bullet hole.
Two
hundred yards away, the soldiers who had minutes earlier shot the
older man searched the possessions of a motionless Taliban soldier
on the ground. After emptying the man's pockets, a soldier fired
a burst from his rifle into the man. The soldiers moved on quickly,
showing no emotion. A few minutes later, someone laid an unused
mortar round across the man's throat.
A fourth
body a mile away had a bullet wound in the side of the head. The
Taliban soldier, flat on his back, had his hands up, as if he had
been surprised or surrendering when shot.
Looting
was widespread. Alliance soldiers, who have received extensive backing
from the United States, plundered Taliban bodies and bunkers, stealing
shoes, bags of sugar, flashlights and anything else that they could
find. "I got 700,000 afghani!" a soldier who was leaving
an abandoned Taliban bunker shouted, flashing a wad of bills worth
$20. "I got 700,000!"
Afghan Warfare: Taliban Trick Throws Rebels Into
Retreat
B by Dexter Filkins,
NY Times, Nov. 14
BANGI,
Afghanistan, Nov. 13 The scene was set today for Northern
Alliance troops to make another triumphant entrance into a city
taken from the Taliban. Then everything went wrong.
Early this afternoon, the word spread that a Taliban commander in
Kunduz, in northeastern Afghanistan, had switched his allegiance
to the Northern Alliance and invited its troops to enter.
"Kunduz has been captured!" the Northern Alliance soldiers
roared, and the tanks and troop carriers started their engines and
rumbled toward the city, where several thousand Taliban troops who
have fled from other northern towns are now cornered.
But when the alliance's troops approached the fringes of Kunduz,
they were met not with cheering crowds but with Taliban rockets.
The soldiers, stunned, began to panic. So did the alliance commander,
Gen. Daoud Khan, who stood on top of a hill, jerking his head about
in confusion.
"I don't know what is happening," the commander said,
his face drained of color. "We made contacts with commanders
in the city. They told us they would embrace us."
Related
chapters from Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know
Soldiers,
rights of
POW
camps
Protected
persons
War crimes, Categories of
Hors
de Combat
Perfidy
Selected Bibliography
Afghan
Warfare: Taliban Trick Throws Rebels Into Retreat
By Dexter Filkins
The New York Times, Nov. 14, 2001
Executions
of P.O.W.'s Cast Doubts on Alliance
By David Rhode
The New York Times, November
13, 2001
"Afghanistan:
Northern Alliance Must Accept Surrender Offer; Executions of Taliban
Defectors in Kunduz Also Condemned."
Human
Rights Watch.
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