28 March 2011 By M. Siddiqui New revelations from the forgotten wars. US
soldiers who are part of Kill Teams are murdering
Afghan Civilians for "sport." How many more are there?
Afghan human rights groups want an investigation. But you don't understand they fight us because of
our freedoms! Leading independent human rights campaigners in
Afghanistan have welcomed the sentencing of a U.S.
soldier accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport
in 2010, but have called for a deeper probe into
alleged "kill teams." Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 22, is the first of
five U.S. soldiers charged with staging combat
situations to kill unarmed Afghan civilians to be
sentenced. At the start of the court-martial hearing
on March 23, Morlock testified that "the plan was to
kill people." He was subsequently found guilty on
three counts of premeditated murder and sentenced to
24 years in prison. Military Judge Lieutenant General Kwasi Hawks said
he intended to sentence Morlock to life in prison with
the possibility of parole but was bound by Morlock's
plea deal. Morlock is a key figure in a war-crimes probe that
implicates a dozen members of his platoon and has
raised some of the most serious criminal allegations
stemming from the war in Afghanistan. He was accused
of taking a lead role in the killings of three unarmed
Afghan men in Kandahar Province in January, February,
and May 2010. Mounting Uproar The German magazine "Der Spiegel" this week
published several photos related to the killings, one
showing Morlock crouched grinning over a bloodied
corpse as he lifts the dead man's head by the hair for
the camera. The expected release of thousands of
similar pictures is expected to create fierce
resentment in Afghanistan, where the issue of civilian
casualties is already the source of a highly charged
debate. The investigation and the publication of the
pictures prompted Afghan human rights organizations to
call for a thorough investigation of such abuses. "The
U.S. government needs to immediately launch
comprehensive investigations in all its military
units, Special Forces, private security contractors,
local mercenaries, and affiliated irregular armed
groups in Afghanistan to ensure that no more criminal
‘kill teams' exist," the independent human rights
watchdog, Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), urged this
week. Speaking to RFE/RL from the Afghan capital, Kabul,
ARM director Ajamal Samadi says that Morlock's
sentencing was a welcome sign. But Samadi presses
Washington to further investigate similar incidents to
bring an end to the "criminal immunity" that he says
is available to a wide array of Afghan and
international forces, armed contractors, and private
militias. "It is extremely difficult to attribute the crimes
that take place in Afghanistan to certain military
groups. That is the biggest problem," Samadi says. "If
you travel to parts of Afghanistan where conflict is
more intense, people will tell you all sorts of
stories: crimes committed by foreign soldiers, by
Afghan forces, [and] by the militias. So we believe
the environment is extremely criminalized in
Afghanistan in a way. All sorts of crimes are
happening and the civilians are paying a very, very
high price in this conflict." Afghan observers say the sentence is likely to
raise Afghan hopes for answers to their calls for
accountability of all armed actors in their country.
On March 23, military Judge Hawks also ruled that
Morlock will be eligible for parole in about seven
years. Morlock will be dishonorably discharged from
the army. Earlier, Morlock read a statement apologizing to
the victims' families and the "people of Afghanistan,"
adding, "I've spent a lot of time reflecting on how I
lost my moral compass." Abdul Rahman Hotaki, the head of Afghan
Organization of Human Rights and Environmental
Protection, says that Morlock's sentence is not equal
to his confessed crime of killing unarmed civilians.
Nevertheless, he says, it shows Afghans that their
blood is not cheap and that abuses committed by
international forces are being addressed. "We hope that people who have committed human
rights abuses by torturing prisoners in Bagram or have
killed and tortured people in other provinces will be
similarly brought into international and American
courts," Hotaki says. "This will serve as a lesson for
forces still operating in the theater." Hotaki says that efforts to address abuses by
international forces could raise the esteem of Afghans
and help bridge a widening gulf with the
administration in Kabul. Afghan presidential spokesman Wahid Omar has
offered similar sentiments. Speaking to RFE/RL Radio
Free Afghanistan, he streses the need for continued
greater accountability on the part of international
troops. "If the United States of America wants to be
friendly with Afghan people and government and wants
to have a presence in this country," Omar says, "then
they should put an end to operations which result in
civilian casualties." More pics from Der Spiegel: Comments 💬 التعليقات |