Suspicions emerge about Afghan bombing cover-up
by Terrie Albano The death of some 48 civilians and 100 wounded due to a July 1 US bombing of the Afghan village of Uruzgan is emerging as a potentially volatile situation both for the new "warlord-dominated" Afghan Government as well as the Bush administration. The Afghan Government warned against any "cover-up" in an ongoing investigation conducted jointly by US and Afghan officials as to what happened that tragic day. US officials have claimed that one of its planes was fired upon by anti- aircraft guns and returned fire by dropping 2000-pound bombs. Afghan residents say the US mistook the local wedding tradition of firing guns into the air as enemy fire. According to the BBC, a recent United Nations report "says there was no corroboration of the US claim that the aircraft that launched the attack had first been targeted from the ground." The BBC also reported that after the bombing, the US said it needed several weeks to collect evidence and make a full report. "But locals say US officials arrived just hours after the raid, taking photographs and filming the scene and the bodies. The UN investigation is also reported to have found that women at the bomb site had their hands tied", the July 29 story said. Earlier reports also indicated that the US troops arrived immediately after the bombing. "First they bombed the womenfolk, killing them like animals, then they stormed into the houses and tied the hands of men and women", said Mohammad Anwar, the brother of the wedding's host. Anwar is also a senior military commander in neighbouring Kandahar, appointed by the current Afghan President Hamid Karzai. An internal United Nations report, described as "an assessment of relief aid needs" following the bombing, was handed over only to the Afghan and US Governments and will not be released to the public. In a July 30 press release, the UN said this report "should not be mistaken for a probe of the incident". The Times of London first reported the existence of the UN inquiry. Department of Defence (DoD) spokesman Lt. Col. David Lapan told the People's Weekly World that the US "preliminary investigation team" from July 3 did not find evidence of anti-aircraft artillery in the area. The investigation's final report will come out in a few weeks, Lapan said. Lapan could not comment on the UN report. "I haven't seen the report", he said. Estimates of the number of civilian casualties due to US bombing in Afghanistan range from 1000 to over 4000. In his groundbreaking report, US Professor Marc Herold culled through the world's press reports from October-December 2001 and estimated from 3500- 4000 casualties. CNN, responding to an e-mail question, reported 3500 casualties on an international broadcast in March. Even with the July 1 bombing, Lapan said, the Pentagon has never given a number of the casualties but just "accepted the locals' numbers". "Given the track record of the Pentagon's willingness to deceive the public, the question will be is this an investigation or a cover-up? The UN findings and the way they are back-pedalling from their initial report would seem to indicate the latter", said Marilyn Bechtel, International Secretary of the Communist Party USA. Of course, Lapan denied a cover-up, calling it "ludicrous". Meanwhile, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld exonerated the special operations soldiers who killed 15 civilians in a January raid, also in Uruzgan. The soldiers were ordered into an Afghan village, supposedly where suspected al Qaida and Taliban forces hid. There were none there. Assistant Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz recently rationalised the July 1 civilian massacre, stating they had to go after the "bad guys". According to public opinion poll researcher Dr David Miller, from Scotland's University of Stirling Media Research Institute, US public opinion was significantly less for the US war on terrorism and the bombing of Afghanistan when civilian casualties were mentioned.* * * The author can be reached at talbano@pww.org People's Weekly World