Mass graves raise questions in Afghanistan

[Hz915]

MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan (CNN) -- In the stifling desert of northern Afghanistan, lying as still as the air, is evidence of the gruesome fate that met hundreds of Taliban fighters late last year.

The discovery of numerous mass graves, filled with bones and skulls, raises questions about exactly what happened to prisoners after they were captured last November in the northern city of Konduz by the U.S.-backed forces of Northern Alliance Gen. Adbul Rashid Dostum.

The ground around Mazar-e-Sharif offers abundant evidence of mass death. In May, investigators with the Boston, Massachusetts-based group Physicians for Human Rights examined a grave in Dasht-e-Leili and said hundreds of victims had been dumped there.


But how and why the men died is still uncertain.

Human-rights groups have accused Afghan forces of suffocating hundreds of Taliban fighters by locking them in unventilated steel shipping containers after their capture. The captives were taken to a prison in Sheberghan, some 200 miles from Konduz.

Not all of them were dead on arrival. Many are still behind bars at Sheberghan, where they told CNN of their surrender and the aftermath.

They said they were packed tightly into trucks and shipping containers for the trip to the prison, and that many of their Taliban comrades did not survive.

"We don't know how many people died," one prisoner said. "We know that we were about 12,000 people, and now there is only 4,000 or 3,500. We don't know where are the other people."

U.N. investigators hope to unlock the mystery, and outside Mazar-e-Sharif, they are standing watch over a patch of desert where as many as 1,000 Taliban fighters may be buried.

Initial findings appear to support the contention of human-rights groups -- that the men were suffocated in shipping containers, then dumped.

Dostum admits as many as 200 captives died en route to the prison. But he would not elaborate on how much the United States knew or approved of his treatment of the war prisoners.

He is adamant, though, that U.S. forces were not present when the prisoners were loaded into shipping containers.

Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has said he supports an investigation into the deaths of the Taliban fighters. And State Department spokesman Philip Reeker recently said, "We're going to continue to engage Afghan authorities on this matter in order to help seek accountability for any violations that may have occurred."

But with new and old graves scattered around Afghanistan -- a country that endured more than 20 years of civil war before the U.S.-led air campaign led to the fall of the Taliban last year -- it may take years to find out what happened and who should bear responsibility. [from CNN.com 9/30/02]



The only part I could be upset with is that they only died by suffication. I would be much more satisfied by other means of death. Suffication isn't a horrific death.

These "Human Right's" people, shouldn't they be more concerned with starving families instead of dead people that wanted to kill innocent people. I don't give a rats ass about anyone who wishes to bring harm to America. I don't care when they died or how they died, just as long as there dead. Cause that's one less terrorist prick that I have to worry about killing our innocent families.

These "Human Right's" people....take concern feeding the poor, sheltering the homeless, and healing the sick. Not a dead f-ing prick.

[Cosmo]

Since these people will fight to the death to kill innocent people, such as infadels, there is/was no point in taking them prisoner. Prisoners ae mnormally taken to be returned at the cessation of hostilities. Since these savages will never cease killing, no point in taking them prisoners.

[302Riz]

Why should anyone care about Taliban mass-graves? Those people got what they deserved. Let em rot!

[86Dude]

The only part I could be upset with is that they only died by suffication. I would be much more satisfied by other means of death. Suffication isn't a horrific death.

These "Human Right's" people, shouldn't they be more concerned with starving families instead of dead people that wanted to kill innocent people. I don't give a rats ass about anyone who wishes to bring harm to America. I don't care when they died or how they died, just as long as there dead. Cause that's one less terrorist prick that I have to worry about killing our innocent families.

These "Human Right's" people....take concern feeding the poor, sheltering the homeless, and healing the sick. Not a dead f-ing prick.

If they were all terrorists I might agree with you, however, its very likely that they were mostly soldiers or militia fighting for their own internal civil war.

[Hz915]

Originally posted by 86Dude

If they were all terrorists I might agree with you, however, its very likely that they were mostly soldiers or militia fighting for their own internal civil war.

"MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan (CNN) -- In the stifling desert of northern Afghanistan, lying as still as the air, is evidence of the gruesome fate that met hundreds of Taliban fighters late last year."

Key word 'Taliban'. I don't care what they were fighting for. At some point in time they would have become a threat to our nation and our nations soliders.

[302Riz]

Hell the Taliban provided a safe haven for all the terrorists that were involved in the WTC and Pentagon attacks. They already posed a threat, killed 3,000 INNOCENT CIVILIANS who were just going about their daily business working to support their families. Dont forget what the Taliban was doing to their own people for gods sake!

So I shed no tears for the dead Taliban. They had a choice, they chose evil and are now dead and forgotten. They wont be missed and the world is a better place without them.

[DngrMse]

They were Taliban, and fighting for same.

They are dead.

I don't see what the problem is.

[Geoffrey]

Originally posted by DngrMse
They were Taliban, and fighting for same.

They are dead.

I don't see what the problem is.

agreed... they couldn't be in a better, more fitting place

[86Dude]

I can see that I am outnumbered. Regardless, the fact still remains that most of them were NOT terrorists. However, like yourselves I could really care less, unless of course our millitary was involved.