Afghanistan: US 'should be put on trial'

[Andrej Tisma]

> AP. 3 July 2002. Music and Dancing, Then Rockets and Death as Afghans
> Recall Night of Devastating U.S. Raid.

> 
> KAKARAK -- Villagers said a U.S. plane suddenly blasted away at them as
> they were celebrating a coming summer wedding in the pre-dawn coolness,
> dancing and singing in a pool of illumination from a tractor's
> headlights. Survivors said some people died on the spot, others fled
> into the darkness.
> 
> The villagers in this narrow valley told of running for their lives
> through rice and corn fields as U.S. aircraft appeared to chase them,
> firing bullets around them. Terrified children took shelter in groves of
> trees, survivors said.
> 
> In Kabul, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah said 44 people were killed
> and 120 wounded in Monday's raid on a half-dozen villages here in
> Uruzgan province about 175 miles southwest of the capital.
> 
> Visiting U.S. officers scraped blood samples into plastic bottles and
> picked up shell casings while a military photographer took pictures as
> evidence.
> 
> U.S. officials have said American forces were attacking a legitimate
> target in the area using a B-52 bomber and an AC-130 gunship. 
> 
> Villagers said 25 of the dead, all members of a single extended family,
> were attending a party at the home of Mohammed Sherif, brother of one of
> President Hamid Karzai's close allies, to celebrate the marriage of
> Mohammed Sherif's son, Abdul Malik, which was to have occurred this
> week.
> 
> By tradition, neither Abdul Malik nor his fiance was present and both
> escaped injury. Mohammed Sherif was killed.
> 
> Although Afghans often fire weapons at such festivities, survivors
> insisted there had been no shooting for several hours before the raid.
> They said they could hear the sound of U.S. aircraft overhead but paid
> no attention because such overflights are common.
> 
> "The first rocket hit the women's section," said Ahmed Jan Agha, who was
> playing a traditional Afghan drum during the party. "The second rocket
> hit the men's section. Then everybody started running. The airplanes
> were shooting rockets at the people running away. They were chasing us."
> 
> Agha said he could not see the planes because it was dark and had no
> idea how many took part in the attack. He said survivors hid in the
> nearby orchards and fields while the attack continued for about four
> hours.
> 
> "I was standing here and the airplane came over us," said Ghulam Jan
> Agha, 25, his wounded arm bandaged. "It was normal for us so we didn't
> run" until the explosions began.
> 
> When the planes were gone, Agha said American and Afghan troops entered
> the village, set in a narrow valley between two rocky mountain ranges.
> 
> "They told everybody to stay inside their homes," Agha said of the
> Americans. "They only allowed the injured to leave." The Americans
> departed about noon, he said. That's when the Afghans started burying
> their dead.
> 
> At the nearby village of Shartogai, 20-year-old Mohiuddin said he was
> sleeping outdoors when he was awakened by thunderous explosions. He saw
> aircraft lights and began running through a cornfield into a grove of
> trees where he found several children hiding from the attack.
> 
> He said the planes fired on the grove. One tree was cut in half and
> others showed what appeared to be damage from ordnance.
> 
> "Bullets hit all around me," he said. "I was lucky to be alive."
> 
> Abdul Ghaffari, 30, showed journalists dozens of what appeared to be
> blast craters, some three feet across. He said a few people in his
> village were injured but no one died.
> 
> "Americans can see even small things," he said. "Why couldn't they see
> it wasn't al-Qaida? It was just women and children running."
> 
> At Mohammed Sherif's compound, there were two gaping holes in the roof
> of the house. The mud walls facing the inside of the compound were
> pockmarked by shrapnel, and shards of metal were scattered through the
> yard. Dried blood and bits of human remains littered the area.
> 
> Forty pairs of shoes still sat awaiting owners at the front door of the
> house. Afghan tradition requires visitors to remove footwear before
> entering. Nearby lay a pile of women's clothing. A small boy stood
> weeping in front of it.
> 
> Next door, several angry Afghans pointed to flesh and bloodstains mixed
> in with straw.
> 
> "My heart is burning with anger," said Abdul Malik, who plans to go
> ahead with his wedding. 
> 
> "The Americans should be put on trial."
> 
> He angrily denied that there were al-Qaida or Taliban fugitives in his
> village.
> 
> "They say they were looking for al-Qaida," said Abdul Malik. "But did
> they find any dead bodies of al-Qaida people here? We are all the
> right-hand men of Hamid Karzai and we support his government."
> 
> He said no one had offered any compensation for his family's loss.
> 
> "If someone handed over the whole of Afghanistan to me, it would be no
> compensation for this," he muttered.
> 
>