Monday, 31 October 2005

US MILITARY CONDEMNS ABUSE AFTER LATEST AFGHANISTAN CLAIMS

Published in News Digest

By empty (10/31/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The US military said it would not tolerate abuse by its soldiers after new claims against American troops in Afghanistan, where they were this month accused of burning the bodies of Taliban suspects.The US-led coalition announced late Sunday that two US soldiers had been charged with allegedly assaulting two detainees in their custody in southern Uruzgan province, including by punching them in chest, shoulders and stomach. \"These alleged offences do not reflect the values of the members of this command,\" coalition spokesman Colonel Jim Yonts told reporters on Monday.
The US military said it would not tolerate abuse by its soldiers after new claims against American troops in Afghanistan, where they were this month accused of burning the bodies of Taliban suspects.The US-led coalition announced late Sunday that two US soldiers had been charged with allegedly assaulting two detainees in their custody in southern Uruzgan province, including by punching them in chest, shoulders and stomach. \"These alleged offences do not reflect the values of the members of this command,\" coalition spokesman Colonel Jim Yonts told reporters on Monday.\"We will not tolerate the kind of behaviour that is alleged against these soldiers,\" he said.He said the US military was conducting three investigations into television footage broadcast this month showing US soldiers burning the bodies of suspected Taliban fighters in contravention of international law and the tenets of Islam, which says the bodies of Muslims must be buried. The Australian report said the soldiers had burned the bodies because they had been left in the open for more than 24 hours. They used the incident to taunt other Taliban fighters in an attempt to goad them into battle, it said.Coalition soldiers in Afghanistan have also been accused of abusing Afghan detainees, at least eight of whom have died in US custody since 2001, when the coalition entered the country to help topple the hardline Taliban government. Two US soldiers were this year sentenced to up to three months in jail for the abuse, terms Afghan government officials said were \"unexpectedly lenient.\" Reacting to the latest allegations involving US soldiers, the government reiterated it was against all acts that were in violation of the Geneva Convention. \"Any step which intends to curb such abuses in Afghanistan is welcomed,\" foreign ministry spokesman Naveed Ahmad Moez said. (AFP)
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