>>> WORLD DISPATCH
Today, Brian Whitaker says the US's campaign in Afghanistan will never
end in victory if the Northern Alliance are allowed to commit further
atrocities.
In September 1982, with the blessing and protection of Israeli forces,
the Lebanese Phalangist militia "mopped up" alleged terrorists among
the Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila.
In November 2001, with the blessing and protection of American forces,
Northern Alliance fighters in Afghanistan "mopped up" alleged
terrorists among the population of Mazar-i-Sharif.
The "terrorists" in Sabra and Shatila were largely defenceless men,
women and children, more than 1,000 of whom were massacred by the
Phalangists while the Israelis sealed off escape routes and lit up
the sky with flares, allowing the rampage to continue, day and night,
for 40 hours.
What happened in Mazar is less clear, but the Red Cross spoke of
hundreds of deaths and the UN reported "summary executions". In one
incident, according to the UN, the Northern Alliance killed 100 young
Taliban fighters when it found them hiding in a school. Last weekend,
hundreds of pro-Taliban fighters who had been taken prisoner by the
Northern Alliance were shot dead inside a mud-walled fort near Mazar.
Again, the details are still unclear, though reports say the
bloodbath began when some of the 600 prisoners - who apparently had
access to guns and grenades - tried to escape.
If true, this raises questions about whether America's friends in
Mazar had taken elementary measures to disarm the prisoners and guard
them properly, or whether it just provided the excuse for a massacre.
"Shot while trying to escape" is, after all, one of the oldest fibs
in the book.
* Read on here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,606500,00.html
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Alison Croggon
Home page
http://users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
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