US Representative James McGovern (D-MA) has written to US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, to urge him to take action

to ensure that there is a full investigation [of the Dasht-e-Leili massacre of 2001] and that a process of justice and accountability is established for the Afghan people.

McGovern is Co-Chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. In his letter to Holbrooke, he wrote:

There are encouraging signs that the Obama Administration is prepared to move forward toward accountability for the massacre and its aftermath. President Obama told CNN in an interview broadcast July 13th that having now learned about the allegations he has instructed his national security team to gather all the facts about the case for his review. Collecting facts about this incident can only be done if the evidence, physical and testimonial, is not only identified, but also secured and protected.

For the full investigation the President has ordered to be successful it is imperative that immediate steps be taken to secure the gravesite and witnesses to the massacre. Past incidents demonstrate the need for gravesite and witness protection. A Physicians for Human Rights forensic expert in 2008 working under the auspices of the UN, discovered that large sections of earth have now been dug up and removed in the area where the remains were allegedly buried in Dasht-e-Leili. Analysis of satellite images performed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science on behalf of Physicians for Human Rights shows the apparent presence of heavy earth moving equipment at the site in August 2006. Additionally, according to US Government documents that were uncovered by PHR’s FOIA request in 2006, witnesses to this incident were “tortured, killed, or simply disappeared.”

In face of this documented tampering with evidence, as well as the documented danger to witnesses to this event, I request that you work with the Karzai government to ensure appropriate protection of the site and any remaining physical evidence, as well as the safety of any witnesses. This would be a vital first step towards fulfilling President Obama’s mandate to collect all available information about the incident.

Download the full letter from Representative McGovern to Ambassador Holbrooke:

  Letter from US Representative James P. McGovern to US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, 7/16/09 (923.0 KB)

Filed in documents and materials, letter, update and tagged: american association for the advancement of science , barack obama , CNN , foia , hamid karzai , james mcgovern , richard holbrooke , satellite images , tom lantos human rights commission

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In 2002, PHR investigators first confirmed the presence of human remains in a mass grave at Dasht-e-Leili, outside of the city of Sheberghan in Jowzjan Province, northern Afghanistan. Six and a half years later, in 2008, Stefan Schmitt, Director of PHR’s International Forensic Program, was in Afghanistan under contract with United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to conduct forensic assessments on several different grave sites in the country. In an effort to re-visit sites which had been originally documented in 2002, Schmitt visited Dasht-e-Leili. In contrast to 2002, Schmitt, came upon two sizeable pits which had disturbed the area originally documented in 2002—indicative of apparent evidence tampering. Schmitt raised concerns about the state of the alleged massacre site in meetings with UN and Afghan officials in Kabul.

McClatchy Newspapers subsequently reported that the UN team

first spotted two large excavations on a visit in June, one of them about 100 feet long and more than 9 feet deep in places. A McClatchy reporter visited the site last month [November 2008] and found three additional smaller pits, which apparently had been dug since June.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science recounts (PDF) that

In May 2009 PHR requested that the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) research and acquire available satellite imagery of the area to determine when two the sizeable pits possibly comprising the graves might have first appeared.  Working with PHR’s International Forensic Program, the AAAS located and analyzed multiple images of the site acquired by the QuickBird, Ikonos, TopSat, and SPOT-5 satellites.

Satellite imagery analysis provided by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) revealed that apparent earth-moving equipment was present at the site on August 5, 2006. The image shows the presence of one large pit and apparent earth-moving equipment in a second area. A subsequent satellite image from October 24, 2007 reveals a second pit where the apparent earth-moving equipment had been.

On June 21, 2006, PHR made an extensive Freedom of Information Act request for all information relating to occurrences on and around November 2001 in the region of Dasht-e-Leili. PHR submitted the FOIA request simultaneously with the Department of Defense (including the Department of the Air Force, the Department of the Navy, and US Central Command), the Department of State (including the War Crimes Office) and the Central Intelligence Agency.

It appears that within just a little over a month of PHR’s Freedom of Information Act request, two large pits were excavated in the general area where human remains are suspected to be buried. The contents (fill) of these pits was taken away to an unknown location, and considering the size of the pits, this must have taken many truck loads.

The AAAS report (PDF) is now publicly available. Images from the report are available on AfghanMassGrave.org, on PHR’s Flickr account and as a .kml file, which can be viewed in Google Earth. AAAS has also issued a statement regarding its report.

Filed in documents and materials and tagged: AAAS , air force , american association for the advancement of science , central intelligence agency , department of defense , department of state , foia , freedom of information act , ikonos , jowjzan province , kabul , mcclatchy newspapers , navy , quickbird , satellite images , sheberghan , spot-5 , stefan shmitt , topsat , unama , us central command , war crimes office

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