Muhammad Posted October 21, 2005 US troops burn bodies 21oct05 THE US military and Afghan Government launched investigations last night into claims US soldiers burned the bodies of two suspected Taliban militants. The allegations were made in a report broadcast on SBS TV yesterday that showed footage of the bodies being burnt, and carried claims the soldiers used the evidence to taunt locals. Burning bodies is deeply offensive to Muslims and contravenes the Geneva Convention. The US military in Afghanistan had launched a criminal investigation and would take corrective action if it proved to be true, commander Maj-Gen Jason Kamiya said. "This command does not condone mistreatment of enemy combatants or desecration of their religious and cultural beliefs," he said. Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said he ordered an inquiry. President Hamid Karzai was against the desecration of any human body, his spokesman Karim Rahimi said. "The Government of Afghanistan strongly condemns any disrespect to the human body, regardless of whether it is an enemy's body or a friend's body," Mr Rahimi said. The soldiers said they burned the suspected militants' bodies for health reasons after they had been left out in the open for more than 24 hours, SBS's Dateline program said. The suspected militants had died in an ambush of a US patrol in which a US and Afghan soldier were killed before Afghanistan's parliamentary elections last month, it said. It said the US troops later used the incident to broadcast inflammatory messages. "Attention Taliban, you are all cowardly dogs," one message reportedly said. "You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. "You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. "This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be." Another stated: "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." The photojournalist who took the footage, Stephen Dupont, told SBS the troops apparently wanted to enrage the Taliban to attack. http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16988322%255E663,00.html Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
