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Rights Group Calls for Strengthening Rule of Law in Afghanistan

Media Contacts:
Jonathan Hutson
jhutson [at] phrusa [dot] org
Mobile: +1-857-919-5130

Cambridge, MA — In response to the return of a notorious warlord to Afghanistan from Turkey, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) renews the call it has made repeatedly over the past seven years for a full investigation of an alleged massacre of as many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners who surrendered in November 2001 to US and Afghan forces and who are believed to be buried in the desert of Dasht-e-Leili.

On August 16, General Abdul Rashid Dostum — who is widely reported to be partly responsible for the massacre and for a subsequent cover-up — returned to Kabul to campaign for the re-election of President Hamid Karzai in the August 20 elections. It is widely reported that President Karzai has offered General Dostum a government post in exchange for his support.

“Real and lasting peace in Afghanistan will be made possible by strengthening the rule of law and ending the culture of impunity,” stated PHR CEO Frank Donaghue.

“Letting General Dostum return to any position of power before there is a thorough and transparent investigation into whether or to what extent he may have been involved in the alleged 2001 massacre, will be seen by the Afghan people as confirmation that warlords like Dostum have impunity for their crimes,” continued Donaghue. “General Dostum has admitted that these prisoners surrendered jointly to US special forces and to Northern Alliance troops under his command. As Physicians for Human Rights has said for 7 years since the organization’s experts discovered the alleged mass grave, the site must be secured, witnesses must be protected, and Afghanistan must join the international community in probing how these prisoners died and why General Dostum and the Bush administration reportedly impeded investigation into these alleged war crimes. PHR looks forward to appropriate action from President Obama after he receives a report from his national security team, whom he ordered to gather all the facts and report to him on whether the international laws of war were violated.”

“Not only is General Dostum alleged to have committed the original war crime; he is also reportedly responsible for serious tampering with evidence,” stated PHR Deputy Director Susannah Sirkin. “A Physicians for Human Rights forensic expert in 2008, working under the auspices of the UN, discovered that large pits have been dug in the area of Dasht-e-Leili where bodies are suspected to be buried. Analysis of satellite images performed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science at PHR’s request, shows the apparent presence of heavy earth-moving equipment at the site in August 2006. McClatchy Newspapers reported on December 11, 2008 that according to witnesses, General Dostum and his commanders “have taken all the bones and thrown them into the river.” And, according to US Government documents that PHR uncovered in 2006, witnesses to this incident were “tortured, killed, or simply disappeared.”

“Afghanistan must work with the international community to ensure appropriate protection of the site and any remaining physical evidence, as well as the safety of any witnesses,” said Donaghue. “These would be necessary steps toward fulfilling President Obama’s mandate to collect all available information about the alleged war crimes and the reported cover-up.”

Editors, please note:
To access the online video by PHR (War Crimes and the White House: The Bush Administration’s Cover-Up of the Dasht-e-Leili Massacre) and to obtain high-resolution photos courtesy of Physicians for Human Rights, please visit AfghanMassGrave.org.

Filed in press release, update and tagged: abdul rashid dostum , american association for the advancement of science , barack obama , bush administration , dasht-e-leili , election , frank donaghue , kabul , mcclatchy newspapers , Susannah Sirkin , Taliban , UN , united nations

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Media Contact:
Jonathan Hutson
+1-857-919-5130 (mobile)
jhutson [at] phrusa [dot] org

Human rights group that discovered the mass grave and sued for release of government documents is available for comment.

Cambridge, MA — Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has issued a call for a criminal probe in the wake of a major New York Times story with new evidence that the Bush Administration impeded at least three federal investigations into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan in 2002.

PHR is calling for the Department of Justice to investigate why the Bush Administration impeded an FBI criminal probe of the alleged Dasht-e-Leili massacre.

According to US government documents obtained by PHR, as many as 2,000 surrendered Taliban fighters were reportedly suffocated in container trucks by Afghan forces operating jointly with the US in November 2001. The bodies were reportedly buried in mass graves in the Dasht-e-Leili desert near Sheberghan, Afghanistan. Notorious Afghan warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who was reportedly on the CIA payroll, is allegedly responsible for the massacre.

Physicians for Human Rights, which shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, first documented the existence of the alleged mass grave in January 2002 and since then:

• Advocated for witnesses to be protected, the mass grave site to be secured, and for a full and impartial investigation;
• Conducted preliminary forensic investigations — including exposing 15 remains and conducting three autopsies — under UN auspices at Dasht-e-Leili;
• Successfully sued for compliance with a PHR Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the release of US government documents that reveal US intelligence knowledge of the magnitude of the alleged crime and awareness of the execution and torture of witnesses to the incidents;
• Helped identify the US chain of command likely responsible for impeding federal investigations into the alleged massacre;
• Discovered and reported on alleged tampering of the site; and
• Requested satellite image analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that appears to demonstrate that tampering occurred soon after PHR filed its FOIA request in June 2006.

“Physicians for Human Rights went to investigate inhumane conditions at a prison in northern Afghanistan, but what we found was much worse,” stated Susannah Sirkin, PHR Deputy Director. “Our researchers documented an apparent mass grave site with reportedly thousands of bodies of captured prisoners who were suffocated to death in trucks. That was 2002; seven years later, we still seek answers about what exactly happened and who was involved.”

Senior Bush Administration officials impeded investigations by the FBI and the State Department, and the Defense Department apparently never conducted a full inquiry, the New York Times reports in the story for the July 11 print edition by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter James Risen.

“The Bush Administration’s disregard for the rule of law and the Geneva Conventions led to torture of prisoners in Guantánamo and many other secret places,” noted Nathaniel Raymond, PHR’s lead researcher on Dasht-e-Leili. “Contrary to the legal opinions of the previous Department of Justice, the principles of the Geneva Conventions are non-negotiable, as is their enforcement. President Obama must open a full and transparent criminal probe and prosecute any US officials found to have broken the law.”

Sirkin added, “President Obama must set a different course by signaling publicly that in all of its operations anywhere in the world, the US and its allies will respect the Geneva Conventions and safeguard the rights of prisoners of war, as well as all captured combatants and detainees to be treated humanely.”

“The State Department’s statement to the New York Times that suspected war crimes should be thoroughly investigated indicates a move towards full accountability,” added Raymond.  “We stand ready to aid the US government in investigating this massacre. It is time for the cover-up to end.”

PHR reiterated its call on the Government of Afghanistan, which has jurisdiction over the alleged mass grave site, to:

• Secure the area with the assistance of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force-Afghanistan);
• Protect witnesses to the initial incident and the ensuing tampering; and
• Ensure a full investigation of remaining evidence at the site, including the tracing of the substantial amount of soil that appears to have been removed in 2006.

“Gravesites have been tampered with, evidence has been destroyed, and witnesses have been tortured and killed,” stressed Sirkin. “The Dasht-e-Leili mass grave site must finally be secured, all surviving witnesses must be protected, and the Government of Afghanistan, in coordination with the UN and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), must at last allow a full investigation to go forward.”

PHR’s International Forensic Program (IFP) has conducted forensic assessments and investigations of human rights abuses, crimes against humanity and genocide in many countries. IFP is dedicated to providing independent forensic expertise to document and collect evidence of human rights violations and of violations of international humanitarian law. Since the 1980s, PHR has mobilized forensic scientists and other experts worldwide to respond to inquiries by governments, organizations, families and individuals.

Editors, please note:
To access and use a new, online video by PHR (“War Crimes and the White House: The Bush Administration’s Cover-Up of the Dasht-e-Leili Massacre”), and to obtain high-resolution photos courtesy of Physicians for Human Rights, please visit the Videos page.

Filed in news coverage, press release and tagged: AAAS , afghanistan , bush administration , cia , dasht-e-leili , Dept. of Justice , Dostum , FBI , geneva conventions , Guantánamo , ISAF , James Risen , mass graves , Nathaniel Raymond , nato , New York Times , President Obama , sheberghan , state department , Susannah Sirkin , Taliban , UN , war crimes

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