Bill Longley
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Thursday, July 16, 2009
Ikram Sehgal
President Obama on Monday ordered US security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of pro-Taliban prisoners in 2001. The prisoners were in the custody of Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum, a prominent warlord who served as chief of staff of Afghanistan's post-Taliban army and remains a prominent member of the Karzai government. The killings of hundreds of Pakistani citizens contributed to the emergence of Maulana Fazlullah as a militant leader in Swat. Obama told CNN's Anderson Cooper that "the indication that this had not been properly investigated was just recently brought to my attention."
On Dec 8, 2001, I had written, "Rashid Dostum, who is a law unto himself in his Uzbek home base of Mazar-i-Sharif, sees others as interlopers. The foreign fighters in Konduz who were tricked into surrendering to Rashid Dostum were dead men walking, given his track record there was no way they would ever walk out of Qila-i-Janghi alive. However one cannot for a moment believe or accept that civilised nations like the USA and UK will countenance such a massacre of prisoners in cold blood, whatever the circumstances." For eight years till Obama came along, the atrocity was ignored. Maybe there is hope for justice in this world after all.
Witnesses told The New York Times and Newsweek in 2002 that over a three-day period hundreds of Taliban prisoners were slain in the desperate uprising in Qila-i-Janghi fortress prison which was put down by Dostum's troops in November 2001. The survivors were stuffed into closed metal shipping containers and given no food or water. Many suffocated or were killed when guards shot into the containers. A recently declassified 2002 State Department intelligence report states that one source concluded that about 1, 500 Taliban prisoners died, including hundreds of Pakistanis. Most of them were those who had been led into Afghanistan from Pakistan by Sufi Mohammad. Their bodies lie buried in a mass grave in Dasht-i-Leili, a stretch of desert just outside Shebergan. Fearful of the anger of the parents of the young innocents he abandoned to their deaths, Sufi Mohammad, the Pied Piper of Konduz, and darling of the Pakistani electronic media for some time this year, chose to stay safe in prison in Pakistan, ceding authority by default to his brutal son-in-law, Maulana Fazlullah.
Desperately attempting to get attention of the powers-that-were, I had written almost five years ago to the day on July 12, 2003, "Our religiously idealistic young men went to fight the Soviets in great numbers, these were fresh recruits from the Madrasas motivated by their religious leaders (like Sufi Mohammad) to go to the help of Afghans, not out of love of money but out of love for their brethren in Islam. And what did they get in return? The Afghan element among the Taliban force defending Kabul melted away at the approach of Northern Alliance (mostly Tajik) troops, leaving a screen of Pakistanis within Kabul. Almost to a man these Pakistanis were murdered cold in blood by the Tajiks. In many cases the poor Pakistanis were made to lie down in drains and than shot dead like dogs. Worse happened in Konduz, where a force of 8,000 Taliban led by Mullah Dadullah negotiated a surrender to "General" Rashid Dostum commanding the "Jumbish Milli," and Mullah Atta Mohammad of the Northern Alliance. About a 1,000 or so hardened fighters refused to surrender and broke out, about 6,000 (a majority of them Pakistanis) were tricked into surrendering to Dostum by their leader Mullah Dadullah. There is an Indian canard picked up by some in Pakistan that 6,000 Pakistanis were airlifted from Konduz overnight, even the US with all its aviation resources would not be able to evacuate 300 each night from the Konduz airstrip in those circumstances. Almost all the Afghans, including Mullah Dadullah, were given food and water (it was the month of Ramazan) by Dostum and allowed to go off into the night. The Pakistanis paid the price for their (Afghan's) freedom. Arabs, Chechen and (mostly) Pakistanis were packed into container trucks. On Nov 29, 2001, the first convoy of 13 trucks (each packed with about 150 prisoners) set out from Qala Zeini for Shebergan. The next day another convoy of trucks came to Shebergan. According to Newsweek's eyewitness accounts, most were tied up like cattle, this fate was especially reserved for Pakistanis. Many had already died due to dehydration and suffocation, more than a 100 dead in some containers, only 20 or 30 surviving. The International Red Cross representatives applied to see the "Qila Janghi" prison on Nov 29 but were not given permission till Dec 10, 2001." Despite the abundance of evidence, nobody in Pakistan's ever discussed this atrocity. Mention was barely made in the media, Shebergan never happened!
Given Obama's directive, will Rashid Dostum, one of the most brutal warlords in a country that is known for its cruelty and bestiality even in normal circumstances, survive his criminal war excesses? More importantly, will those CIA operatives who not only participated in this crime but were accessories to the cold-blooded murders be indicted by the US government? By the way Rashid Dostum maintains one of his wives in Islamabad, or did till very recently, through whose benevolent courtesy is (or was) this local "logistics" arrangement possible? Osur rulers certainly lack self-respect in accommodating even outright war criminals. Those in positions of authority during Musharraf's reign are accessories to war crimes by their deliberate criminal negligence in not making Sufi Mohammad answer for his cowardice and turning a blind eye to Dostum. Will the final act of Konduz and Shebergan be enacted in Swat? Will the blood of our youth being spilt in Swat wake this nation to the bloody excesses perpetrated and those responsible be indicted? If Kargil is an example, they never will be!
Ikram Sehgal
President Obama on Monday ordered US security officials to look into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a CIA-backed Afghan warlord over the killings of hundreds of pro-Taliban prisoners in 2001. The prisoners were in the custody of Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum, a prominent warlord who served as chief of staff of Afghanistan's post-Taliban army and remains a prominent member of the Karzai government. The killings of hundreds of Pakistani citizens contributed to the emergence of Maulana Fazlullah as a militant leader in Swat. Obama told CNN's Anderson Cooper that "the indication that this had not been properly investigated was just recently brought to my attention."
On Dec 8, 2001, I had written, "Rashid Dostum, who is a law unto himself in his Uzbek home base of Mazar-i-Sharif, sees others as interlopers. The foreign fighters in Konduz who were tricked into surrendering to Rashid Dostum were dead men walking, given his track record there was no way they would ever walk out of Qila-i-Janghi alive. However one cannot for a moment believe or accept that civilised nations like the USA and UK will countenance such a massacre of prisoners in cold blood, whatever the circumstances." For eight years till Obama came along, the atrocity was ignored. Maybe there is hope for justice in this world after all.
Witnesses told The New York Times and Newsweek in 2002 that over a three-day period hundreds of Taliban prisoners were slain in the desperate uprising in Qila-i-Janghi fortress prison which was put down by Dostum's troops in November 2001. The survivors were stuffed into closed metal shipping containers and given no food or water. Many suffocated or were killed when guards shot into the containers. A recently declassified 2002 State Department intelligence report states that one source concluded that about 1, 500 Taliban prisoners died, including hundreds of Pakistanis. Most of them were those who had been led into Afghanistan from Pakistan by Sufi Mohammad. Their bodies lie buried in a mass grave in Dasht-i-Leili, a stretch of desert just outside Shebergan. Fearful of the anger of the parents of the young innocents he abandoned to their deaths, Sufi Mohammad, the Pied Piper of Konduz, and darling of the Pakistani electronic media for some time this year, chose to stay safe in prison in Pakistan, ceding authority by default to his brutal son-in-law, Maulana Fazlullah.
Desperately attempting to get attention of the powers-that-were, I had written almost five years ago to the day on July 12, 2003, "Our religiously idealistic young men went to fight the Soviets in great numbers, these were fresh recruits from the Madrasas motivated by their religious leaders (like Sufi Mohammad) to go to the help of Afghans, not out of love of money but out of love for their brethren in Islam. And what did they get in return? The Afghan element among the Taliban force defending Kabul melted away at the approach of Northern Alliance (mostly Tajik) troops, leaving a screen of Pakistanis within Kabul. Almost to a man these Pakistanis were murdered cold in blood by the Tajiks. In many cases the poor Pakistanis were made to lie down in drains and than shot dead like dogs. Worse happened in Konduz, where a force of 8,000 Taliban led by Mullah Dadullah negotiated a surrender to "General" Rashid Dostum commanding the "Jumbish Milli," and Mullah Atta Mohammad of the Northern Alliance. About a 1,000 or so hardened fighters refused to surrender and broke out, about 6,000 (a majority of them Pakistanis) were tricked into surrendering to Dostum by their leader Mullah Dadullah. There is an Indian canard picked up by some in Pakistan that 6,000 Pakistanis were airlifted from Konduz overnight, even the US with all its aviation resources would not be able to evacuate 300 each night from the Konduz airstrip in those circumstances. Almost all the Afghans, including Mullah Dadullah, were given food and water (it was the month of Ramazan) by Dostum and allowed to go off into the night. The Pakistanis paid the price for their (Afghan's) freedom. Arabs, Chechen and (mostly) Pakistanis were packed into container trucks. On Nov 29, 2001, the first convoy of 13 trucks (each packed with about 150 prisoners) set out from Qala Zeini for Shebergan. The next day another convoy of trucks came to Shebergan. According to Newsweek's eyewitness accounts, most were tied up like cattle, this fate was especially reserved for Pakistanis. Many had already died due to dehydration and suffocation, more than a 100 dead in some containers, only 20 or 30 surviving. The International Red Cross representatives applied to see the "Qila Janghi" prison on Nov 29 but were not given permission till Dec 10, 2001." Despite the abundance of evidence, nobody in Pakistan's ever discussed this atrocity. Mention was barely made in the media, Shebergan never happened!
Given Obama's directive, will Rashid Dostum, one of the most brutal warlords in a country that is known for its cruelty and bestiality even in normal circumstances, survive his criminal war excesses? More importantly, will those CIA operatives who not only participated in this crime but were accessories to the cold-blooded murders be indicted by the US government? By the way Rashid Dostum maintains one of his wives in Islamabad, or did till very recently, through whose benevolent courtesy is (or was) this local "logistics" arrangement possible? Osur rulers certainly lack self-respect in accommodating even outright war criminals. Those in positions of authority during Musharraf's reign are accessories to war crimes by their deliberate criminal negligence in not making Sufi Mohammad answer for his cowardice and turning a blind eye to Dostum. Will the final act of Konduz and Shebergan be enacted in Swat? Will the blood of our youth being spilt in Swat wake this nation to the bloody excesses perpetrated and those responsible be indicted? If Kargil is an example, they never will be!
