US Troops Burn, Desecrate Bodies of Afghan Resistance
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- Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 22:26:22 GMT
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US Troops Burn, Desecrate Bodies of Afghan Resistance
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
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The Age (Australia) - Oct. 20, 2005
http://www.theage.com.au/news/WORLD/SBS-shows-troops-burning-Taliban-bodies/2005/10/20/1129401343878.html
SBS shows troops burning Taliban bodies
SBS has broadcast footage of what it says is United States soldiers burning
two dead Taliban fighters as they faced Mecca and using the charred and
smoking corpses in a propaganda campaign in southern Afghanistan.
The Dateline report, broadcast on Wednesday night, said US soldiers burnt
the bodies for hygiene reasons but then a US psychological operations unit
broadcast a propaganda message on loudspeakers to Taliban fighters, taunting
them to retrieve their dead and fight.
In Washington, the US Defence Department has expressed concern over the
report and promised it will be "aggressively investigated."
"These are very serious allegations and, if true, very troublesome,"
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Reuters.
"It is the policy of the United States, as well as the Defence Department,
to treat all remains consistent with the Geneva Convention and with the
utmost respect. These allegations will be aggressively investigated and, if
proven to be true, the individuals will be held appropriately accountable,"
Whitman said.
A US military statement released in Afghanistan said army criminal
investigators had launched a probe "into alleged misconduct by US service
members, including the burning of dead enemy combatant bodies under
inappropriate circumstances".
"This command does not condone the mistreatment of enemy combatants or the
desecration of their religious and cultural beliefs," US Major General Jason
Kamiya said in the statement.
"This alleged action is repugnant to our common values, is contrary to our
commands approved tactical operating procedures, and is not sanctioned by
this command."
Dateline said the story was filmed in early October.
The footage of the burning corpses was shot by Australian photojournalist
Stephen DuPont who was embedded with a US unit.
Dateline said the two Taliban fighters burnt on hills above the village of
Gondaz north of Kandahar were killed by the US soldiers the night before.
The footage showed flames licking two charred corpses, their legs and arms
outstretched, and a group of five US soldiers standing watching from a rocky
ledge.
Footage showed two US soldiers reading two messages from a notebook that
they said had earlier been broadcast.
"Attention Taliban you are cowardly dogs," read the first soldier,
identified as psychological operations specialist Sergeant Jim Baker.
"You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are
too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys
we always believed you to be."
The other unidentified soldier read a second message, part of which said:
"You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Talibs but you are a
disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come
and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are."
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